Connections
by Hollyflash
Summary: AU. Danny's life is changed forever when an accident leaves a ghost stuck to his side. Between strange powers neither of them can control and a world Danny never knew existed, they're going to have to learn how to get along and protect Amity Park. Somehow.
1. From the Top

There are so many reasons why this story shouldn't be up right now. Namely that my dramatic timeline-placed foreshadowing jokes about when I was going to post this on May 25 were stopped by a storm which knocked out my internet, which as you lovelies will later learn, is _very_ ironic.

Anyway, hiya everyone! Welcome to the rewrite of my baby, and I call it that because it takes up an alarming amount of my waking thoughts. I've known that I needed to fix up the beginning of this story for a while now, but in light of the lack of responses the last couple chapters have gotten, I decided to go ahead with a complete reboot of thi…s idea. So everyone, welcome to Connections 2.0- it's filled with more of the stuff y'all like, and cut into more manageable chunks.

The old version is still up of course if you all, uh, want to read some bad first drafts of my plot points and now 'ooc' ocs. ^^' Splitting Images and Bitter Reunions were pretty good, but everything else? Not so much. Also Bitter Reunions itself was 55k.

For those of you who are new; hi! I've included the specifics of this AU at the bottom, but I'm sure you can deduce the most important parts of it anyway. I will say this before we start, though; there is _significantly_ less oc involvement in this arc than there was in the original draft.

I doubt most of you are still reading this note anyway, so let's just get into it. _Onwards!_

* * *

 **Chapter 1;** _ **From the Top**_

"You can't change it, you know. You can't change the past. They taught us better."

"I know, I know..." a sigh, "I know. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try."

.-.

It was the last stand; the final battle. If they won this, it was all over, and the world would be safe.

Danny was injured, but there was no time for healing. A blast had just taken out all of Team Alpha; their opponent was far too powerful. He knew his friends were yelling at him, desperate to get him away from the fight, but he couldn't bring himself to care. No, enough people had died already. This had to stop, and _he_ would be the one to end it.

A weapon lay between him and the monster, and it took two seconds before Danny realized exactly what it was. It held the most powerful attack- except using it wouldn't just kill your opponent, but severely damage you as well. With how injured he was already, there was a high chance that the weapon would kill him.

Looking out at the destruction around him, he decided it was worth the risk.

He launched himself forwards, picking up the weapon as he went. The monster turned towards him, and his hands shook.

"Sorry," He whispered. He heard his friend scream. His ears started to ring as Danny pressed the button to fire and-

 _Error: you have been disconnected from the internet._

"What?!" Fourteen-year-old Danny Fenton stared at his laptop's screen, and the game he'd got for his birthday. Another notification popped up, saying it was low on battery power. "Wait, no, c'mon-" he twisted the charger, which was held together with only duct tape and hope, trying desperately to get it to work again. "Come on!"

His phone rang. Danny pulled his headset off- another birthday present- and grabbed it from his desk. "Tuck, my internet's dead."

"Rip," Tucker replied, "we all died when you dropped the Final Rush, by the way. My internet friends are angry."

"I'm sorry," Danny groaned, and moved a hand to the back of his neck. His finger caught of the laptop cord, which bumped one of his model rockets, and Danny snatched it with a yelp before it could fall off his desk. "Uh... also, my laptop's actually dead now. It won't turn back on."

"I told you, you need a new battery _and_ charger if you want to keep Ol' Screamy."

Danny set the model down and glared at the device, not amused by his best friend's nickname for it. "It's not my fault this one's full of ectoplasm. Honestly I'm just thankful it hasn't come to life. But what I need, Tuck, is a new laptop."

"Well, you'd better find yourself some rich friends, because I am poor as shit." He paused, "Hold on, I need to go murder everyone in my group chat. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Danny glanced at the clock- 12:00 flashed in the dark. It had been eight last time he looked up. "It is tomorrow."

"It's not tomorrow until I sleep," Tucker replied, and hung up the phone. Danny rolled his eyes and tossed his own onto the bed. Logically, he knew he should sleep as well; he had class in the morning. But something kept him in his chair, wide awake and not focusing on anything. Something was happening. Far away, something was happening...

He shook his head and glanced at the clock again. It was still flashing 12:00.

"Power outage," he mumbled, "I have school in the morning, I need to reset my alarms... phone." He looked back, over the dark shadows that covered his bed, and frowned. The lights on his alarm clock turned off; the power was out again. "I'm not finding that."

Danny spun in his chair once before standing up and stumbling towards the door. He pulled it open and attempted to make his way down the stairs. One creaked, signaling that he was just about to reach the bottom. "This would be easier if I had night vision," he muttered, "Just become a cat, suddenly animorphs... animagus. Wizards."

The lights snapped back on, momentarily blinding Danny and causing him to slip on the remaining two stairs. He screamed as he fell on his back and whacked his head on the wood. Danny groaned and rolled onto his side, pressing his hands against the back of his head. _I regret so much._

"Danny!" And then, there was Jazz, nearly diving down the stairs to rescue him. His sister lifted him up and held him close, pinning his arms to his sides as she preened his hair for the injury. "Hold on, let me see- oh, it's just a bruise. You're fine, you're fine! Did you fall down the stairs?"

Danny struggled out of his sister's grasp, "A wizard pushed me," he replied.

Jazz rolled her eyes, "I'm sure, little brother. Come on, let's get back upstairs." She lowered her voice, "I think Dad's in the kitchen. Unless you feel like listening to him scream about ghosts, we need to get-"

A crash from the other room cut off her words, and Jack Fenton rushed out towards them. "Kids!" He scooped both teenagers up under his arms, "Come see what your mother and me are making! It's our greatest creation-"

Danny tuned him out and glared at his sister instead. She, in turn, glared at their dad, who continued to babble about something neither sibling cared about as he carried the two into the lab.

It was business as usual in Fenton Works.

.-.

Maddie didn't seem bothered by how her husband carried their children down the stairs and dropped them in some conveniently placed chairs. Neither did either parent seem concerned about how their kids had school in the morning, or that it was probably past midnight. Danny searched for a clock, curious once again about exactly what time it was.

"This-" Jack said, pointing to a hole in the wall filled with loose wires and safety violations, "-is the Fenton Ghost Portal!"

Danny made a gun with his fingers and pretended to shoot himself in the face. Jazz grabbed his finger gun and shook her head. Danny used his other hand instead, smirking at his sister's frown.

"It's almost done," Maddie said, pulling her jumpsuit's hood back, "just a few more touch-ups, a couple more wires... if we pull another all-nighter, we'll have it done by the time you two are back from school!"

Danny raised an eyebrow, "Another? Mom, when was the last time you slept?" He slipped his hand out of Jazz's.

"There's no time for sleep when we're on the verge of a scientific breakthrough, Danno!" Jack declared, practically vibrating as he grabbed a mug and gulped down what was definitely not his first cup of coffee. "You'll understand soon- you're in highschool now!"

"And I have been for like six months, but thanks for noticing," Danny replied dryly. Jazz grabbed his hand again and squeezed tightly.

Jack launched himself at the wall and pulled out a blueprint for the portal. Danny slouched and tried to think of literally anything else- he didn't _care_ about _ghosts!_ They weren't even real! Plus the lab always made him feel like he was sick, and the ventilation made a horrible buzzing sound. Danny's eyes drifted past his parents as they discussed something about a trio of emergency breakers- one of which was apparently already active and on a timer, for some stupid reason Danny didn't care about. Instead, he stared at the portal.

The buzzing echoed in his ears and Danny had a terrible feeling that something was happening. Or, something was going to happen. The world was twisting and turning around him, but Danny stayed in one place. He was dizzy- why was he dizzy? Why did he always get so dizzy when he went in the lab? There was too much buzzing, far too loud, and-

Something was happening. Something was going to happen, right there. In that portal. Pain and fear and _screams screams screams-_

"Danny?" Jazz shook his shoulder, and Danny snapped to attention. Their parents were giving him a worried look. "Have you eaten anything today?"

Danny shrugged her hand off. "Of course I have, I-" he stopped, frowning, as he ran over the day in his mind. "Actually no. No I haven't." _Sorry._

"No wonder you keep spacing out." Jazz sighed and pulled him to his feet. "Mom, Dad, this is all _very_ interesting, and I'd love to learn more about it, but someone needs to make sure Danny looks after himself."

"Hey!" He glared up at his sister, who widened her eyes for a moment and flicked them to the stairs.

Oh. She was trying to get them out. _That_ explained why she was pretending ghosts were interesting!

"Ohhh," Danny bent over, holding his stomach, "I feel it now, I feel it... the hunger... I think I'm dying..."

"Walk it off," Jazz said, and pushed him towards the exit. "You need to work on your acting skills," she whispered.

Danny wasn't listening. The portal had caught his eye again, and the screams echoed in his ears. Something was going to happen with that portal. What was going to happen?

Jazz pushed him up the stairs and blocked it from his view.

"Remind me to fill the coffeemaker with decaf," she sighed as she pulled a chair out for her brother. "Hey, is something the matter?"

Danny looked back at the lab as she sat down beside him. "Is that portal dangerous?"

"Everything in this house is dangerous," Jazz replied, in lieu of comfort, "but it's no more dangerous than their guns, or the oven. They'll be fine, little brother." She offered him a small smile and stood back up. "Nobody will get hurt by that thing, I promise. Now, I know it's late, but what do you want for supper?"

Danny shook his head and turned as she walked past him. "Actually, Jazz? What time is it?"

.-.

Danny dropped his bag and sat at the table beside Tucker, yawning. The first class of the day and he was already desperate to go home.

"Same," his friend said, reaching over to pat his shoulder. "I stayed up past two, trying to finish making a stupid website for Salty."

Danny frowned, trying to remember which of Tucker's internet friends that was. After a long, awkward minute he realized he had no idea. "I didn't even do anything, I just laid in bed awake for _hours_ and woke up before my alarm." He groaned, and Tucker continued to pat him. "Any idea what we're doing today?"

"Science," Tucker replied, ever helpful as the final bell rang.

"Alright class, settle down," Mr. Falluca's quiet voice did not calm the chattering students, and Danny slouched as he began to look more annoyed. "Settle down!"

The conversations filtered off, and in the first moment of silence Danny threw his hand in the air.

"Yes, Danny?"

"Did you finish grading our tests?"

"In fact, I did," he said. "But as one of your classmates has yet to do hers, I can't hand them back yet."

"Bullshit!" Danny flinched and spun around, staring at the student who had slapped her desk. Sam Manson stood up, glaring at the teacher. "I did that test, I was _there_ that day!" Danny sunk deeper into his chair, terrified of whatever demon he seemed to have unleashed. "Check your attendance, I _did that-_ "

"Samantha, sit down!" Mr. Falluca pleaded, "If you have a problem, we can discuss it after class, but until then-"

Danny brought his hands up to his ears as she yelled again, and Tucker started patting him once more. The rest of the class seemed to be enjoying watching Sam argue with the teacher, but Danny hated it. He hated watching people argue, he hated the shouting, he hated the _screams screams someone was screaming in the portal someone was screaming-_

Tucker flicked his cheek and Danny nearly jumped out of his chair. "It's over," he whispered, and when Danny looked back Sam was no longer in the room. One of her friends was blushing furiously and trying to hide her face- that was Rebecca. The other, Mia, seemed far too amused. Her teal eyes flickered to Danny and her grin grew as she gave him a wave.

Danny felt the colour drain from his face and he turned back to the front. Mr. Falluca was handing out sheets of paper, and didn't look at Danny when he set two down on the table. _Science Fair!_ was printed across the top, and the name _Sam Manson_ was written in the corner of his.

Danny nudged Tucker with his elbow and leaned over. His friend had _Michael Jones_ written on his sheet. "What's going on?"

"Partner project," Tucker whispered back, pointing to the explanation on Danny's own sheet. "Worth ten percent of our final grade, due in two weeks."

" _What?!"_ Danny had obviously been too loud, because a few students turned his way. He sunk into his chair and clenched the paper tightly. "Ten percent- Tucker, why is this one project worth that much?!"

"No idea," he shrugged, "I'm working with Mikey, maybe we can combine our groups. Who's your-" he stopped, staring at Sam's name. "Dude."

"I'm dead," Danny whispered, "I'm going to fail and then I'm going to die. Does she even _like_ science? Tucker, what if she doesn't like space?"

"Worse," Tucker said, "what if she doesn't like you?"

The finger gun rose again, and Danny mimed shooting himself in the head. Mr. Falluca returned to the front of the class.

"You can take the rest of this class to talk with your partners about the project," the teacher said, "feel free to move around." The students practically leapt from their seats and rushed towards their partners. Tucker patted Danny's shoulder before going to sit on Mikey's desk. Danny stayed seated.

"Danny," Mr. Falluca moved to his side quickly, "I thought you should know that the partner selection process was completely randomized." At Danny's skeptical look, he continued. "You are without a doubt one of my best students-" Danny felt his face flush at the praise, "-and I am convinced you will get an amazing grade no matter who you work with."

Danny's _then why can't I work with Tucker, or at least someone I've actually talked to?_ didn't make it past his throat. He tried to calm himself down; _randomized, Fenton. It was all a game of chance. Gambling. I'd suck at gambling._

"I'll speak with her about approaching you," Mr. Falluca finished, and returned to his desk.

Danny continued to stare at the assignment, reading it over several times. A partner project due in two weeks, worth _ten percent_ of his final grade, with someone he barely knew.

He'd rather deal with his parent's screaming basement hole than this.

.-.

The day ended without Sam approaching him, even though they also had the same English, History, and PE classes. She hadn't even looked his way.

"Maybe she hates you," Tucker offered as they waited in front of the school. The bus pulled away, and Danny checked his phone. His mom's text of _'Just leaving now honey! Big surprise!'_ had been sent ten minutes ago.

"She's never even talked to me," Danny replied, and sent a text to his sister. _'Death Hole's probably getting turned on at home.'_ Jazz answered automatically with an angry emoji.

"Maybe she hates your parents," Tucker suggested, looking down at his phone. "Mom's here, got to go- will you be okay on your own?"

"Probably," he shrugged, "Mom and Dad will be showing off their new invention when I get home- a _portal_ to the Ghost Zone."

Tucker frowned, "A portal to another dimension? Dude, _that's_ how you get super powers."

"That's how you get _dead,"_ Danny corrected. "Half my parents' stuff would kill me long before it gave me superpowers."

"So, half dead, half superpowers?"

Danny shoved his friend. "Go meet your mom!"

"I call being the annoying but lovable sidekick!" Tucker called back, looked at his phone again, and ran towards the parking lot.

Danny checked his phone again. "You'd think people who can invent holes that go to other dimensions could invent a way to make sure they get here on time," he mumbled.

"Your parents are inventors?"

Danny spun around. Sam Manson stood behind him, arms crossed and looking a bit annoyed. "Uh- yeah. Yes. They invent things, so, inventors." Danny was _very_ aware of how much he was blushing. Why did he have to be so awkward?

"Huh," Sam replied, "I thought they were just crazy people who screamed about how the town government was run by ghosts."

"That was once, and they apologized." Danny crossed his own arms, "And for your information, my parents are definitely not crazy since their research and inventions are actually funded by the university of-"

Sam reached out and pressed a finger to Danny's lips. "Unless we can use it for the science fair thing, I don't care." She sighed and dropped both her arms, "Look, Danny, right? I _really_ need to get a good grade on this, and the only part of this course that I don't suck at is biology. Can we do something with that?"

Danny frowned, "Uh, we could dissect something, maybe?"

"That is _not_ what I meant." Sam glared, "Natural flora or fauna, I can do. But nobody will be cutting up any living creature."

"You don't dissect things when they're alive, that's vivisection." Danny pointed out, and earned himself a glare. "I'm just saying! Also, that sounds boring. What if we-"

"You may be better at science than me," Sam cut him off, "but that doesn't mean you get to take over the project. We're _partners_ Danny. We have the same amount of say in everything."

"Then nothing's going to get done," Danny said, ignoring how his phone vibrated. "We need a plan, and you've admitted you don't have one, so the least you could-"

There was a loud _screech_ and both teens dove closer to the school as the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle crashed through the school fence and came to a stop on the lawn.

"What the hell is that?!" Sam's voice cracked.

"The Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle," at her confused look, Danny continued. "We call it the RV."

"Danny!" The teen awkwardly waved as his dad stuck his head out the window, "who's your friend?"

"This is Sam," Danny called back, incredibly grateful that everyone else had left the school grounds. "We're doing a science project together."

Maddie rolled down the other window, "Science project? Well help her in, Sweetie! It's finally done! She can come see history in the making!"

Jazz screamed, and both of Danny's parents pulled their heads back in. The RV pulled off of the grass and onto the road.

"Hell," Sam muttered, "and I thought my parents were embarrassing."

"Yeah, mine'd win that contest." He turned back to face his partner, shaking his head to try and calm the blush. "Look, we got off to a rough start- want to try again?" He held out his left hand for her to shake. "I'm Danny."

Sam rolled her eyes and took it. "I'm Sam. We're shaking with the wrong hands."

"I'm left-handed," Danny said, and Sam's eyes lit up.

"Cool," she awkwardly shook his hand once again before letting go. "That's so rare, isn't it? I don't think I know anyone else who is."

Danny led the way down to the RV. "My sister is, too. So's my dad, and my grandpa. Apparently it's a Fenton trait."

"That is so cool," Sam replied as they stepped over the ruined remains of the fence. "Maybe we could do our project on that."

Danny pulled the RV's door open and was automatically treated to his sister's disapproving look. "Hi, Jazz. Have you met Sam?"

"Briefly," Jazz said curtly, and shifted her bag so it wasn't blocking the door.

Danny gave Sam a shrug before helping her in.

.-.

When they returned to Fenton Works, the teens were tossed jumpsuits and ordered to go change. Danny's was mostly white with black gloves, boots, and a belt. Jazz' was similar, only pink. They'd been getting one of those for their birthday every year of their lives, despite their annual protests. Sam, who was slightly taller than Danny, had been given one of Jazz' old ones.

"Don't you have anything _not_ pink?" She had complained, to which Jack had replied by holding up a giant orange one. When Sam had settled for the pink one, and the three were finally dressed in their protective layers, they had been thrown into the conveniently-placed chairs. The blueprints were out again, and Danny honestly could not have cared less about the words escaping his parents' mouths. They'd probably given the exact same speech last night, anyway. _Ghosts, ghosts, ectoplasm, not really people, all evil, extremely powerful, very dangerous, blah blah blah._

Sam raised her hand at some point, but Danny was so busy ignoring his parents that he only heard half of her question.

"...All evil?"

"Ghosts aren't _human,_ Sweetie," Maddie replied. "They're twisted remains and bad memories. Ghosts can't be good people because, simply put, they aren't people."

There was a fly in the far end of the lab. Danny focused on that. The screaming wasn't back, but he was still on edge. Something was going to happen. His heart was pounding, and Danny stared at the fly. It landed on one of the two breakers outside the portal. _Are those the only ones?_ Danny frowned, trying to remember. He couldn't see any others, so he assumed they were.

"Are you children ready," Jack shouted and Danny nearly fell out of his chair, "to see history in the making?!" He held a two ends of a plug in his hands.

"No," Jazz yawned.

"Yes," Sam said, seeming to hang on to every word.

Danny tried to find the fly again. "Sure?"

Jack shoved the plugs together and rushed to one of the breakers. It, like the one Maddie stood in front of, was a huge lever. "Ready sweetcakes?"

"I am, Jack!" Maddie kissed her husband's cheek.

"Gross," Danny mumbled, and Sam smacked his arm. Jazz gave them both a disapproving look.

"Three," Jack said, putting his hands on the lever.

"Two," Maddie said, and Danny watched the fly enter the portal.

"One!" Together, they shoved the levers down. Sam squeezed Danny's arm and he stared ahead, at the portal, and at the fly-

A rush of electricity ran through the portal before erupting into a sparking mess. The fly was smacked by a broken wire and a tiny flaming shape fell to the portal floor.

Maddie and Jack exchanged a look before flipping the levers again. And again.

"I don't understand," Maddie said, "I- I checked the calculations, it should work, it should be stable- what did we miss?" She tore the blueprint off of their board, "What did I _miss?!"_

Jack attempted to flip both switches twice more. "Work!" He shouted, and the portal did not.

Sam slouched, "I wore pink for _that?"_

Jazz sighed and patted Danny's shoulder. "I'll distract them." She rushed to their parents side and guided them out of the lab. Jack managed to flip one of the breakers back down before being pulled away. Danny moved to follow, glad that _that_ disaster was finally over, only to notice Sam wasn't behind him.

She was standing in front of the portal.

Danny rushed back to her side and nearly slipped on the lab floor. He grabbed the wall for support and accidentally pushed the other breaker back down. Sam turned towards him, and Danny tried to look natural. "So..." he leaned against them, "what are you doing?"

"How would they even get a permit to build this?" She asked. "My parents had to fight the city just to build my greenhouse."

"You have a greenhouse?"

Sam gave him a look like 'yes, of course I have a greenhouse, you uncultured swine' before turning back to the portal. She took a step towards it.

"Whoa, whoa," Danny grabbed her arm, "what are you doing?"

"Going inside," Sam said, and Danny suddenly felt far away. "It doesn't even work, and I want to see what it looks like. Maybe we could do something with electronics for our project, it certainly seems to be your parents'-"

"You can't go in there," Danny whispered.

Sam crossed her arms, and Danny realized he wasn't holding her anymore. He didn't know when he'd let her go. "Why not?"

The screams echoed in Danny's mind, but the buzzing fans seemed quiet. "It'll kill you."

Sam rolled her eyes and hopped into the portal.

"Sam!" Screams still echoing in his ears, Danny poked his head in. "Get out of there!"

"What, are you _scared?_ " She teased, and ducked to avoid a dislodged wire. "Come on, portal to the Ghost Zone? Are you going to pretend you're not the least bit curious?"

"No, because I'm _not,_ " Danny took a hesitant step in and attempted to shove the wire back into place before it could hurt someone. It reconnected with a shower of sparks, and he raised his arms to shield his face. "Sam, please, get out of there!"

"Hey, there's something back here!" She called, "Do you have any flashlights out there? I can't quite see it."

"Sam, no," Danny moved to her side, walking on his tiptoes trying not to get his feet tangled in the wires. "Come on, this is serious! We need to get out of here!"

She pointed at a bump on the wall. "What does that look like to you?"

"...No idea." A bubble of curiosity rose inside him and despite his twisting, _screaming_ gut Danny pushed the bump back in. Something whirled, twisted, buzzed- and the portal lit up enough to read the words _breaker 3_ written just above the button.

Sam's breath caught. "Oh, shi-"

" _Run!"_ Danny grabbed her by the sleeve and pulled, not caring about the wires twisting around his feet. Electricity leapt between them and Sam screamed, ducking to avoid the ceiling of sparks

It occurred to Danny that they wouldn't make it out.

His foot caught on a wire and Danny lurched forward, hand still clinging to a fistful of Sam's jumpsuit. He threw his arm out to break his fall, practically throwing Sam ahead of him, and crashed to the ground. She hit the entrance way and rolled, past the wires and out the portal. He couldn't move, and time slowed down. Sam pushed herself up and turned towards him. Blood trickled from a cut on her forehead and her eyes were huge.

Sound was long gone, but the portal vibrated under him. Danny felt as if he was underwater, drowning and gasping for air while stuck in place. Sam's mouth moved in a whisper of his name, and she reached out her hand- Danny reached out too, trying to grab on-

The portal lit up around him and Danny heard the screams.

* * *

Functionally, Connections is a series rewrite taking place from March 2014 to May 2017. It's got all the elements; variations on the canon portal accident, episode-inspired chapters (they're epichapters in my heart), and explanations for things the show never touched on, but I like to think that I go above and beyond that. This isn't just the episodes you've watched in text form with a few minor variations and a retelling of the accident- oh no, that route has had it's run.

This is the story of a bigger world, and of those little moments nobody thinks twice about. This is about family, friendship, and standing up when you barely can because no one else will. But above all, this is a story of a kid named Danny who finds himself in the middle of the impossible. It is, after all, a story about Danny Phantom.

So buckle yourself in my lovelies, we're in for the ride. Welcome to Arc 1, from the accident to Spectra, let's see if you can spot all the connections.

Well, that's enough of being fake-dramatic! I've got up to Chapter 7 done already, so depending on the responses for each chapter, I might do weekly updates! _Might_ is a key word there, since I'm heading out of the country tomorrow. Otherwise, you can expect to see Chapter 2 on June 17, and I'll play around with my update system from there!

That's all for now! Thoughts, everyone?


	2. Static Central

*Raises one leg dramatically* Are y'all ready for my _favourite_ character? My precious bundle of good intentions with a body count?

No, not Stopwatch. I won't be getting into his shenanigans until the canon cast actually gets their act together- which they've yet to fully do in any of my prewritten chapters. But hey, they're trying, and isn't that what's really important?

Well, welcome back to Connections! I'm back in Canada and running on a combined six hours of sleep from the past two nights, two small bags of jerky, a pop tart, and a mountain dew! I'm absolutely exhausted! In this chapter, seeds from my garden of lore start to sprout and Danny makes a friend. He also makes an enemy. Oh, and Sam deals with this all super well. Good job, kiddo.

Also; ghost language! Translations will be provided… eventually. If you're impatient, you can always translate them yourself! Just grab your typical 'qwerty' keyboard and type the letter to the right of the one written. Simple!

Onwards!

* * *

 **Chapter 2;** _ **Static Central**_

Danny blinked.

"Uh..." he was surrounded by a pale gray fog that wasn't damp, but thick enough that he couldn't see the ground he walked on. He stretched out a hand, half expecting the fog to swallow it, but watched instead as it split up and curled in thick tendrils around his wrist. Danny snatched his hand back and stepped away, wondering why he wasn't scared. That was not normal. That was absolutely _not normal._ "Hello?" He called out, confused by how steady his voice was. "Is anybody here?"

His voice echoed in the fog, and Danny took a hesitant step forwards. The fog followed him, and he stretched out a hand again. He couldn't feel _anything._ He should be terrified. He should be shaking, screaming- but instead he moved calmly forwards, not even numb, just... calm, caught up in everything he _should_ but _couldn't_ feel.

"Hello?" Danny called again, "I'm not sure what's happening here! Could someone help me? All I did was turn the portal on, I-" his voice caught, and his feet stopped. "I... I think I died."

A mass of static appeared to his left, and Danny jumped. It spread all around him, pushing the fog away. His parents' lab started to take form- someone was screaming.

Sam knelt in front of the portal, shaking, wailing, and feeling all the fear Danny couldn't. She hadn't moved. Her hand was still outstretched.

"I died," Danny whispered, "I died? I- no, no no no no no no-" he took a step back, "no, I'm not- I can't be-" the fear still wasn't there, and his heart not pounding. He wasn't shaking, and he didn't scream. Sam had all that covered for him. "I'm not dead," Danny muttered, "I am _not_ dead!" He threw himself forwards, towards the portal- towards his _grave-_ and static crackled in his ears before the scene snapped away.

He was back in the fog, on his hands and knees. The fall hadn't hurt. There was no fear in the fog, and no pain.

"I'm not dead," Danny whispered, "I'm _not_ dead." He stood up and tried to find a speck of strong emotion he could cling to. There was none. He was calm. "No," he said again, running both hands through his hair, "I'm not dead."

There was someone standing behind him.

Danny spun around, and stared at the man dressed in black. His edges seemed to flicker, like he was made of the same static which had shown Danny his- _not death, he wasn't dead-_ and as he tipped his head to the side, his form glitched. He had his hood up; Danny couldn't make out his face, but had a sense the man was smiling.

Danny stared at him. "I'm not dead, you hear me?" He pointed a finger at the flickering man, "I am _not dead._ Put me back!"

The man held out his left hand.

.-.

Sam was a murderer.

She barely even knew this kid, and now he was _dead-_ why? She should have listened. She hadn't needed to go in that stupid portal. He'd been trying to get her out, and she had _killed him!_ She'd killed him!

Sam didn't know when she'd started screaming. It didn't seem to matter.

Her hand was still outstretched, from when he'd tried to grab her, and Sam knew from the bottom of her heart that if he hadn't thrown her forward like that she'd be dead too.

"No," her voice was raw, shattered and torn apart from screaming. "No. God, please, no." His parents were upstairs. His _sister_ was right upstairs! Hadn't they heard her? Hadn't they cared? Their son was _dead_ and she'd killed him!

Her hand fell down, and Sam stared out at the portal. Green swirled right in front of her, sparks jumping off around the edges.

"Come back," she whispered.

A spark shot off from the center of the portal, and the swirling changed. Something seemed to press against it, and five white nubs broke through the portal. It was fingers- a glove.

"Danny!" Not caring for a second that Danny's gloves had been _black_ and not white, Sam grabbed on and pulled. A figure came tumbling out of the portal, causing them both to crash to the lab floor. She was up in seconds, staring at the black jumpsuit and the white hair. "...Danny?" She nudged his shoulder and electric green eyes shot open.

Sam screamed.

He screamed.

Sam screamed louder and nearly punched him in the face.

He ducked out of the way and glared at her as Sam scrambled back, away from not-Danny and away from the portal. _Is this his ghost?_ _Oh, hell, I really am a murderer._

Not-Danny huffed, looking rather annoyed. "Eysw," he said, and his voice echoed off the walls.

Sam blinked. "What?"

He stared blankly at her. "Qglr?"

Sam's heart was pounding. "Do... do you not speak English?"

"U sib'r ybswearlbs tiy," he said slowly, "aowlj fgiar."

"You aren't Danny, are you?" Sam moved back, shaking again. Mrs. Fenton had explained ghosts when she asked. They were evil and would do anything to trick you. She'd been so desperate for Danny not to be dead that she'd let this one out. This was on her. Whatever horrible thing this creature did was on her.

"Qgi lew tiy?" He asked, shifting to his knees, "Qgt sus tiy-" he grabbed the center of his chest and lurched forwards. Suddenly he was screaming, and Sam was frozen.

He coughed twice, spitting out a clump of portal-green slime onto the floor. "Worth it," he whispered, the echo all but gone, and Sam tensed. That was English, that was definitely English. "Ahaha, not dead, definitely not..." he trailed off, "why are my gloves white?"

"Danny?" Sam whispered, and he snapped his head back up. His eyes didn't glow as brightly, and he was smiling.

"Sam!" He said with a huge grin, "you sound _terrible."_

" _Danny!"_ She lunged forward and grabbed his shoulders, staring into his eyes. "You're a horrible person."

"Hey!" He shrugged her off and crossed his arms, "I'm not the one who thought going into that-" he pointed to the portal, "-was a good idea! I could have died, Sam! I almost did! I- is my hair _white?_ "

 _He doesn't know._ Sam pulled back, staring at him. _He doesn't know I killed him. He doesn't know about the thing he was before._ "Danny..." He looked up at her, and stopped mumbling about how he 'looked old.' "Who was that other guy?"

He blinked. "Do you mean the weirdo in the fog land, or-" he sucked in a breath and lurched forward, clutching the center of his chest again.

Sam grabbed his shoulder, "Danny?!"

"Fucw nw nt vist vlxj!" He hissed, voice echoing off the walls as he smacked Sam's hand away.

He lurched to the right and squeezed his eyes shut. "Get out of me!"

Eyes open, glowing. Every part of him was glowing. "Kwr nw fi!"

Clenched fists and dull eyes. "Leave-"

Pulling back, glowing. "Nw-"

" _ **Alone!"**_ Both.

The lab lit up, and he was lying on the floor. No white hair, and no white gloves, no black jumpsuit. Black hair, black gloves, white jumpsuit- _Danny._

He sat back up, blinking blearily at her. "I win," he whispered, shaking. Sam grabbed his shoulder again and tried to help him up.

"What was that?" She whispered. "What the hell just happened?"

"Could you stop swearing?" Danny muttered, "I almost died." He leaned against her, "I think I did."

Sam patted his arm, and her apology caught in her throat. Slowly, they turned back to the portal. It had stopped sparking, and the green was spinning slower.

"My parents are going to kill me," Danny whispered.

.-.

Sam had snuck Danny upstairs and into his room. While she went to wash off her ruined makeup and change, Danny practically tore off the jumpsuit and put on his pajamas. There were no burns on his body, no new scars, and no sign that he had almost died.

Apparently, the mysterious fog man was good at his job.

Danny flopped onto his bed, shaking and staring ahead. He was scared. He was alive. That was all that mattered, wasn't it? He could move on with his life. Forget this ever happened.

Sam returned, slowly pushing the door open with her phone in hand. "I called my grandma," she said as Danny sat back up, "someone will be here to pick me up soon."

Danny nodded. "I guess we'll have to meet up later to plan our science fair thing, huh?"

" _That's_ what you're worried about? You almost died!"

 _I did die- nope, nope, go away thought. Not dead. Super ultra mega not dead._ Danny shook his head, "I'm fine, but- why did you go in there?" He ran a hand through his hair, "You could have died."

"You didn't," she replied. "And I didn't think it'd be dangerous! Why would your parents leave us alone down there if it could do something like- you know-" she motioned towards him.

Danny shrugged, and brought his knees close to his chest. He didn't have an answer, nor the energy to act like he was surprised. _Nobody will get hurt in there, huh Jazz?_

As if summoned, his door was shoved open to reveal his sister on the other side with her arms crossed as she looked down at them both. "If you two are going to be in here, the door stays open."

"Gross," Danny said as he scooped a dirty sock off his bedroom floor and threw it at Jazz. She caught it easily and tossed it into a hamper.

"Why are you in your pajamas? Have you two gotten anything done?" She didn't give them a chance to respond, "What project are you doing, anyway?"

"You're his sister, not his mom," Sam said, and stepped back when Jazz turned her disappointed look to her.

"Sam has to go soon so we're just killing time," Danny said, sliding off his bed and moving towards his sister. "We'll figure out what we're doing for the science fair tomorrow."

Jazz frowned, "Since when is there a science fair?"

"It's part of their stupid centennial celebration," Sam replied. "All the freshmen have to do something like this, and it's worth ten percent of our final grade."

Jazz pursed her lips together. "It's worth ten percent and you haven't even started?"

"We just got it today," Danny said and gently pushed Jazz out of his room. "Look, can you just leave us alone? We're not-" there was something behind his sister.

"Not what?" Jazz asked, and Danny took a step back. There was a mass of shivering static right behind her. "Danny, you're in highschool now! You can't just put stuff off until the last minute!" Danny stepped back; in full lecture mode, Jazz didn't notice. "Your procrastination habit needs to stop before it gets you in trouble."

"You're not his mom," Sam snapped, and stepped closer to the static. She didn't even look at it. _She can't see it._

"Someone has to help guide him down the proper path, and our parents certainly aren't up to the task!" It was the same static that had shown him his parents' lab when he was trapped in the fog, Danny was sure of that.

"Oh my God, you're what, two years older than him? Stop trying to parent your brother!" Why was _that_ static here? Was it going to pull him back into the fog? He couldn't go back there! There was nothing in the fog, nothing but forced calm and an absences of pain-

The static twitched. Danny felt like it was staring at him. _I'm not ready to die._

The static rushed towards him and Danny slammed his door, Sam barely jumping back into his room in time. He slumped against the door as Jazz bashed on it, trying to hold it closed and the static _out._ Two fingers rested on his neck; he could feel his heart pounding, blood racing, _I'm alive._

"Danny?" Sam whispered. Danny looked over at her; she was moving back, pointing just past his shoulder.

The static was beside him.

Danny threw himself across his room, a scream ripping from his throat. Jazz was trying to get in- the door wasn't opening. Danny didn't know why.

Sam was frozen, staring at the static right beside her. Her hands were shaking, and her eyes were huge. Several thoughts ran through Danny's mind, wondering why Sam could see the static now and if that meant she was dead too, when a glitching tendril reached for her.

Danny didn't think. Sam wasn't moving, she was frozen to the spot, but he wasn't about to let that thing drag her into the fog. He dove in between them and grabbed the static, surprised for a second with how cold it was and then-

There was a flash of light.

Danny blinked. He was back in the black jumpsuit, and his feet weren't touching the ground. Mostly because he didn't have them anymore.

"Where the hell are your legs?!" Sam whispered-screamed, "Are you _flying?!_ "

"I don't know?" Danny replied, voice shaking. Most of him was shaking. Most of him was also faintly glowing, with the edges of his fingers obscured by the light. Danny choked, looking frantically between Sam and his hands. "I don't know what just happened? Where are my legs?!" He tried to stand, but the end of the wispy finless-mermaid-tail-thing he had simply stretched and curled up on the floor instead. "I had legs last time, right? Right?"

Sam nodded. She was shaking too. "You definitely had legs. Is the other guy in there?"

Danny thought back to his fight for control in the lab and shook his head. "No- I don't think so." The center of his chest was twisting. His doorknob was shaking- Jazz was still on the other side. Why hadn't the static cared about her? What was so special about him and Sam? And why did it hurt so much? "Oh, no, no no no-" his chest heaved. Danny felt like he was thrown back, but knew he didn't move. Everything seemed far away, and irrational fear sunk deep into his gut. He wasn't moving, but still felt like he was shaking.

And he wasn't alone.

Danny focused, trying to figure out how he'd managed to fight for control in the lab and do it again. He knew there was someone else there, he could feel the echoes of movements he hadn't made in his limbs, feel words he hadn't said in his throat, and register images he hadn't seen. _"Give it back!"_ He snapped, _"This is my body, you have no right! Give it back! Give it_ back-"

Danny crashed to the ground, back in control and on his side. His face hurt. His nose was bleeding. Sam had punched him.

Danny shifted and looked down at his boots. "Oh, hey," he muttered, "my legs are back."

Sam didn't move towards him. She'd flattened herself against the wall, staring at him. Her phone was on the ground beside her, playing a tune. Neither of them paid any attention to it.

Danny wiped some of the blood from his nose and sat up, waiting for the next attack. But his chest didn't twist; faintly, in the back of his mind, Danny knew someone was crying. He shook his head until he couldn't hear it anymore.

A horn honked outside. Nobody paid it any attention.

"I think I'm good now," Danny said, and looked at the blood on his hand. It was green. "Or, you know, definitely not."

"Who is he?" Sam whispered, "That other guy. Who is he? Why does he- he was just this _mass_ before. This mass of world that looked wrong, and he- he _possessed_ you! Is he a ghost? Did that portal make you _possessed?!"_

"Ghosts aren't real," Danny said, still looking at his green blood. It looked suspiciously like the ectoplasm in his parents' lab; the stuff they said ghosts were made of. "This- this is-" he had no idea what this was.

Even though he was in his room, some part of Danny's mind was overcome by a desperate desire to go home.

His door flew off the hinges, and Danny flinched as the light flashed over him again. The static appeared in the doorway for a moment as Danny registered the black hair in front of his eyes. _Human._ _I'm human and I'm okay._ The edges of the static twitched.

"Danny!" His parents dove through the static, no more aware of it than Jazz had been. They scooped him up, fretting over the ectoplasm on his hand- it was dangerous, they said. It would burn, they said. But Danny couldn't even feel it. He looked over at Sam as she scooped up her phone and the car honked again.

"My mom's here," Sam said, still shaking. "I have to go."

Danny's plea for her to stay caught in his throat. He barely knew Sam, but now she was the only one with any idea what was happening to him. She was the only one who knew how terrifying it was.

She didn't even look at him as she ran out of the room.

As his parents carried him to the bathroom to wash the ectoplasm off his hand, Danny saw Jazz watch from the hallway. The static appeared right behind her, and if Danny squinted, he could make it look like a person.

Jazz looked where he did- at the static she couldn't see-, frowned, and returned to her room to let the school know her brother would be missing a few days.

* * *

I love Sam. I need to get that out now, because stuff happens with her in this arc, and I just need you all to know upfront that Connections Sam is my favourite version of her. My favourite _character,_ on the other (left) hand…

If you know the old version, then you definitely don't recognize him. He wasn't exactly as _present_ as he is in the rewrite. If you've read some of my other writing however, such as agender!Clockwork or my 'the Unknown' prompt for DannyMay over on tumblr you might find him a bit familiar. But if you've read the old version, then my lovelies, you've already got all you need to figure out exactly who he is. I'll leave you to it.

The translations for the ghost language will be included with the next chapter. The guaranteed update is July 1, unless of course you lovelies would rather I update next weekend instead? Being out of the country can't stop me this time, you know. Not much can; I'm very impatient, and Chapter 3 is one of the _best_ ones. And by _'best'_ I mean Tucker is so, _so_ good and the Fenton parents are wonderful.

And with that; thoughts?

(Also- happy birthday Reyda!)


	3. Evil Voice Problem

I am very easily swayed by affection, and this chapter's my current overall favourite, so here you lovelies go! Enjoy! :D

Also; I love Tucker, and I love how he'd survive a horror movie. He's great. Every fanfiction needs more Tucker. He's the best annoying but loveable sidekick.

Onwards!

* * *

 **Chapter 3;** _ **Evil Voice Problem**_

Normally, Tucker would get a text from his best friend if he was going to miss a day. Danny hated missing class, and would want Tucker to pick up any notes or homework for him despite the fact they both knew his sister would do so anyways. But on Tuesday, he got nothing of the sort. Tucker went through his day worried, and the worry only increased in his Home Ec. class- Sam Manson was supposed to share that class with him, but she was absent too. It wasn't the first time she'd missed one of the classes, but the fact that they both were missing left a bad taste in Tucker's mouth.

Tucker sent Danny a text after school and got no reply.

The next day was the same, as was Thursday- no reply from Danny, and no sign of Sam. On Friday, he caught sight of Jazz talking to one of the teachers and finally got some information.

"Oh, Danny's been pretty sick all week and hasn't been sleeping," Jazz replied, "I think he might have the flu. I got Mom to call the school and give him some time off. I'm surprised he didn't tell you." She gathered her brother's homework and left.

So on Saturday morning, Tucker rang the Fenton's doorbell with a copy of Mario Kart and a thermos full of his mom's best soup in hand. When nobody answered, he invited himself in. Tucker then attempted to provide himself with some complimentary snacks- hey, he was visiting his sick friend, he deserved them- but found the cupboards nearly bare. In addition, the door to the lab was closed with a ' _do not enter - ectotesting in progress!_ ' sign on the door. Apparently, Danny's parents' portal to the Ghost Zone had been more successful than he'd thought.

Unwilling to try the fridge- things in there tended to come to life- he gave up. So unfortunately snackless, which was a true tragedy, Tucker made his way up the stairs. Jazz's door was wide open- she wasn't home. That was fine by Tucker; watching her hover over her sick little brother would just be weird.

Tucker knocked twice on the NASA poster that covered most of Danny's door and heard his friend mutter on the other side. He knocked again; there was more muttering. Tucker rolled his eyes and shoved the door open.

Danny's bed had been stripped of blankets, which were now piled up in front of his closet. His desk chair had been tipped over, and his garbage can was on it's side. Danny was nowhere in sight.

The blanket pile mumbled something about apples.

Tucker rolled his eyes and made his way over to the pile. Hidden under several blankets, Danny was curled up in a ball, eyes closed, and fast asleep. Tucker pulled out his phone and snapped a picture.

"Noooo," Danny mumbled, "leave my apples alone..."

Tucker grinned. _He's sleep talking? Hell yeah, blackmail!_ He started recording.

"I don't want them," Danny continued, "I don't want the peanut butter... my apples... leave them alone..."

"Why are you dreaming about fruit?" Tucker asked, "You don't even like fruit." He poked Danny's cheek, and watched as his friend curled up into a tighter ball.

"Stop hurting the grapes," Danny whispered, his breath speeding up. "Put the raspberries down, put 'em down, put- no, no! Put them down! Put them-" His eyes snapped open and Danny gasped, gripping the center of his chest as he choked.

Tucker stopped the video and dropped to his knees. "Did you just have a nightmare about fruit?"

"Wha-?" Danny looked up at him, squinting and frowning. "Tuck? What are you doing here?" He squirmed out of his blanket pile and rubbed his eyes as he looked around the room. "What time is it?"

"Uh, 11:32," He held out his phone so Danny could see, even though the camera was still open. "Your sister said you had the flu. You could've texted me, dude."

"TV static stole my phone," Danny mumbled, causing Tucker to raise his eyebrows. "Did you film me sleeping?"

"It's your own fault for sleep talking about _fruit_ ," Tucker said. Danny rolled his eyes and pressed play, watching Tucker's blackmail for himself and thereby erasing its use as blackmail. _Ah, well._ It wasn't like he actually needed any dirt on Danny.

Tucker frowned. His friend looked awful- he was too pale, and he stunk. His hair was stuck to his forehead in greasy clumps, and there were dark bags under his eyes.

"You look gross," Tucker said, and stood up. He grabbed some deodorant from Danny's desk and tossed it into the blanket pile. Danny didn't look up, too busy watching the video of his sleep talking. The audio was buzzing. "Danny, dude, when was the last time you showered?"

Danny didn't reply. The buzzing grew louder.

"You stink. I think you're attracting flies." He looked around for any sign of bugs but found none. The video stopped, and the buzzing did too. "Danny, c'mon- shower. And then I'll kick your ass at Mario Kart."

Danny was shaking, and still holding the phone tightly.

Tucker dropped back to his knees. "Dude?"

"You can't hear him," Danny whispered, "can you?"

"Hear who?" Tucker asked.

Danny tapped the screen and the video repeated.

.-.

Danny didn't care about whatever he'd mumbled in his sleep. He hadn't cared since he was five, and his parents filmed him mumbling 'she's coming' over and over on a trip to his grandparents'. Nothing he said while he was asleep ever made sense. What he cared about was the static and echo which followed his words, making some of their own.

"As soon as I can actually move again I'm gonna shock you straight to hell."

"Danny," Tucker said, much more forcefully, "hear who?"

"I... don't know." Danny frowned, any other angry mutters lost to the buzzing audio. "Some guy. He said he'd shock me. You really can't hear him?"

"I heard nothing but buzzing." Tucker took his phone back and opened another app. He tapped the screen and brought it up to his mouth. "Is there anyone in here with us?"

Danny stared at him, wondering if this was really happening. Every part of this past week had seemed like something from a horror movie. The portal accident, the staticy figure only no one else in his family could see, the white-haired form it kept trying to drag him into so it could steal any control Danny still had over his body... Danny had done his best to convince himself none of it was real. He couldn't see static-man in the dark anyway, and if he avoided his bed or the door- unless Jazz opened it, then the static disappeared and there was no problem- there was no chance of running into him. If he didn't have to interact with the staticy man, he could convince himself he wasn't real. None of this could be real. It was too messed up.

Tucker lowered his phone and stopped the recording. "Tell me what you hear," he said, and replayed it.

There was Tucker's voice, "Is there anyone-"

"You can hear me!" The static shouted, much clearer now, and Danny flinched. "You can hear me. Oh, you can hear me! I'm here, I'm here, I'm right here-" the recording ended. Tucker was watching Danny expectantly.

"It just said, 'you can hear me, I'm here' a bunch," Danny said.

"I just heard buzzing," Tucker said as he turned on his phone's flashlight and gave the room a quick scan. Danny froze as he saw the static, floating just above his bed. He didn't say anything. Tucker turned the flashlight off and looked concerned. "There's no one in here but us."

Danny nodded, trying not to look at the static. He failed, and Tucker shot a look at his bed. Once again, he raised his phone.

"What is your name?" He asked, and once the recording had ended, he held the phone closer to Danny.

Tucker's voice, again. "What-"

"I'm here, I'm here!" The static was nearly screeching now, "I can't- no, no, I can't- speak ghost, please, what language is that? What did you say? Please, I'm here, I prom-" the recording ended. Tucker was looking at him expectantly.

"This is dumb." Danny said, "This can't be happening."

"You're the one hiding in a dark room hearing voices," Tucker said. "So what did it say?"

Danny hesitated. "'I'm here' a couple times again, and then asked what language you were speaking. Tuck, can we just leave it? Please?"

Tucker dropped his phone on the blankets, and then hesitated. "Fine. But you need to shower."

Danny relaxed, "I don't smell that bad."

"Dude, there are dead people who smell better than you." Tucker said as he grabbed his wrist. Danny gave a shout of protest as Tucker pulled him from the safety of his blanket burrow. "Get up!"

Danny's vision faded to black for a few seconds, a tell-tale sign that he'd stood up too fast, and he held his friend tightly as he waited for it to clear. It only took a second, but something was wrong. Now there was something behind Tucker.

Danny grabbed Tucker's wrist and threw him back into the blanket pile, holding out his arms to block the static from _ever_ touching his best friend.

He felt a hand grab his wrist and with a flash of light Danny lost control.

.-.

Tucker adjusted his glasses and stared up at the glowing, white-haired, vaguely-looking-like-Danny _thing_ as it turned to face him. Green eyes glowed brighter when they saw him. "Gu!"

Tucker suddenly understood why Danny had been hiding. "What the _hell_ are you?!" He shouted.

The thing- _what even is this, it can't be human, and it's not Danny-_ flinched at his tone, pulling hands back in front of it's- his?- chest. "Okwlaw sib'r vw nls," he whispered. His voice echoed off the walls, it's sounds blending together.

Tucker wondered if he was dreaming; that was the only logical way any of this could be happening. He slowly rose to his feet, and realized that Not-Danny's were floating an inch off the ground. He jabbed the _thing_ in his chest, a bit surprised he was solid. "Where's Danny?"

Not-Danny replied by gently poking the side of his face.

Tucker swatted the hand away and stared ahead, ignoring how this _thing_ rubbed where he'd been hit and tried to look like a kicked puppy. "Give me my friend back."

Not-Danny blinked. "Fooor-end?" He frowned and wrinkled his nose. "For-end. For-en. Fa-end?"

Tucker stepped off the blanket pile. He heart was pounding in his chest, and he still wasn't entirely sure that this was real. "Friend." He repeated. "Danny. Give back."

"Friend," Not-Danny mimicked, and then wrinkled his nose, "u ibkt ybsweariis 'friend', tiye klbfylfw ua synv."

"This isn't happening," Tucker muttered, watching as Not-Danny scrunched up his face more. "This isn't happening."

"Friiiend," He said, stretching out the word and pointing to Tucker.

"I'm not your friend!" Tucker snapped.

Not-Danny shook his head. "Friend," he said, "taulk. Taut." He wrinkled his nose again, "Talk? Talk!" At Tucker's blank look, Not-Danny scooped up his phone and held it out. "Friend talk!"

Tucker grabbed his phone. "You're who Danny could hear?" Oh, this wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. "Give him back."

Not-Danny frowned. He opened his mouth, but Tucker didn't wait for him to try and mimic the word. He shoved the _thing_ back, ignoring the startled squeak the action earned him. "Give Danny _back!"_

Trembling, with hands held close to his chest, the glow around Not-Danny began to fade. Once again, there was a flash of light, and Danny crashed to the ground.

Tucker pulled his friend to his feet and rushed at the door. It was stuck. Why was it stuck? He flicked on the light and turned towards the window.

The sight of a shadowy, static-like figure standing by the pile of blankets caused Tucker to flip the lights back off again.

"Danny," he hissed, "what the hell is happening?"

"I don't know," Danny whispered, looking a bit dazed. "I swear, Tuck, I have no idea what's going on here."

"Who is- _what_ is-"

"I don't know," Danny's voice was shaking. Tucker turned the light back on; the static was on Danny's bed now. "I don't know what's going on anymore."

The door opened and smacked them both.

Jazz stuck her head in and gave them a concerned look. Tucker didn't hesitate; he yanked Danny out of the room and slammed the door closed.

"Tucker-" Danny whispered.

He spun around and pointed a finger in Jazz's face. "Your house is fuckin' haunted!"

"Language!" Jazz scolded, pushing his hand away before she opened the door back up. The static was gone. "Tucker, what are you talking about?"

"She can't see him," Danny mumbled.

Tucker wasn't about to give up. "There's a god-damned white haired floating _demon-thing_ that looks kind of like Danny and doesn't speak English in there!"

Jazz rolled her eyes. "Sure. Danny, you need to shower." She grabbed her brother's arm and started to pull him towards the bathroom.

"You aren't _listening!"_ Tucker grabbed her sleeve and ignored how Danny shook his head, "Why would I make this up?! There's something in there!"

Jazz sighed, let go of her brother, and returned to his bedroom door. The static appeared right beside her as she opened it. While Danny and Tucker took a step back, Jazz turned back to them- and stepped directly through the thing that had possessed her brother.

"There's nothing there," she said, and the static didn't move. "I don't know what game you're playing, but this is ridiculous. You aren't children anymore. Danny, shower. Being sick is not an excuse to be this gross."

Danny hadn't taken his eyes off the static. Still, he nodded at his sister's words and backed slowly into the bathroom.

"I bought some chips and stuff," Jazz said, "they're in the kitchen, if you're hungry." She walked through the static again to return to her room, and Tucker had the sense that it was staring him down.

He stood in front of the bathroom door until Danny was done.

.-.

Maddie pulled the ectoplasm sample apart, and watched as it repaired itself. "Sample three-six B is still functional, Jack."

"So's this one!" Her husband replied, and the two looked up at each other. The portal bathed the lab in a warm green glow, and the normally cool air was vibrating with energy. But Maddie couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

"It isn't a natural portal," Maddie said softly, mostly to herself, "we _know_ it can't be; these samples are far too stable. It can't be that the mechanisms just needed some time to settle, not if we built it properly- which we did. We've been checking the samples and calculations for a week." She turned her head to stare at the portal, "This shouldn't be here."

Jack was uncharacteristically silent, frowning at the portal. It shouldn't have formed, let alone be so stable, and they both knew that. Their life's work had been reduced to nothing when it hadn't worked earlier that week, but at least they'd be able to understand what was happening. This? It was like trying to put together a puzzle when they only had the edge pieces. Barely anything was connecting enough to explain what had happened.

"Vlad would know," Jack said softly.

Maddie couldn't help but agree. "Vlad understood those calculations better than any of us." She understood ectoplasm, and Jack how to put any sort of machine together, but the once-third member of their group understood why it worked. He'd be able to tell them exactly what had happened with this portal. Maybe there'd been too much of an electrical charge, or their samples hadn't been pure enough, but at this rate they wouldn't figure it out unless they took the portal apart. Vlad would have been able to look between it and their calculations and just _know_ what had gone wrong.

But of course, Vlad was gone.

Maddie moved to her feet and started towards the portal. The machine gave a comforting hum, and she rested her hand on the frame. The phrase 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' made its way into her mind, and her frown deepened. Such a thought went against everything she stood for as a scientist! She couldn't just give up, not on this mystery-

Something near the ground caught her eye. There was a red-brown stain on the lowest part of the frame, which she was certain hadn't been there before the portal was activated. It was a long smear, with most of it obscured by the portal's energies. Maddie knelt and scratched a tiny bit off, pinching it between her fingertips as she held it closer to the light. It was dried blood.

"Jack!" She called, and motioned her husband over. "Have you seen this?"

He knelt beside her, listened as she explained what it was, and then quietly said, "Danny's friend had a bandaid on her head."

Maddie's heart flipped in her chest. In a minute she and Jack were upstairs, bursting out of lab and into the kitchen. Danny and Tucker were sitting in the living room, wrapped up in blankets that went flying into the air as Maddie and Jack charged them.

"H-hi, Mom," Danny pulled back, "hi, Dad-"

Tucker jumped off the couch. "Your house is hau-"

"Danny, what's your friend's phone number?" Maddie cut in. "That girl you brought over on Monday, what's her phone number?"

Danny, who'd given Tucker a panicked look that Maddie would worry about later, turned to her. "I don't know?"

"Are you talking about Sam?" Tucker asked, "She hasn't been to school since Monday."

Maddie's heart twisted again, and beside her Jack grew tense. _Not again._

Danny, rewrapped in a blanket, joined Tucker. "What's wrong?"

"What's her last name?" Maddie asked. Sam hadn't had any of the boils on her face, but she'd also likely never been exposed to ectoplasm before. They couldn't just leave her. _We should have never brought her down there._

"Manson," Danny replied, "why?"

Jack ran back into the kitchen. Maddie heard crashes as he searched for the phonebook.

"Dad!" Danny dropped the blanket and took several steps towards her, "Mom, what's going on?"

Maddie tried to appear calm for her son. Danny would _never_ have gone in that portal, and would have told her if his friend had. She doubted he even knew. "Nothing to worry about, Honey!" She said tensely, and ran back into the kitchen to help Jack. She pretended she didn't notice Tucker and Danny watching her from the doorway.

It had been four days since the portal was turned on. If the girl's parents had taken her to the hospital, the Guys in White would have surely been called by now. They wouldn't help her- they'd more likely wait until it _killed_ her. Sam had been injured in their portal. Once again, someone was in danger because of their mistakes.

Maddie's heart was pounding as she dropped a phone book from five years ago on the kitchen table. She pulled it open and flipped desperately through the pages.

Caught up in her search, just as Jack was caught up in his, they had no chance of noticing that Danny and Tucker were staring at the shadowy, staticy figure standing behind them.

* * *

Can we take a moment to appreciate how much effort I put into coming up with a title that had the acronym EVP? Because it was a lot and this was the best I could come up with.

As promised, ghost language translations from the last chapter, featuring context!

Not-Danny huffed, looking rather annoyed. "Rude," he said, and his voice echoed off the walls.

He stared blankly at her. "What?"

"I don't understand you," he said slowly, "speak ghost."

"Who are you?" He asked, shifting to his knees, "Why did you-" he grabbed the center of his chest and lurched forwards.

"Give me my body back!" He hissed, voice echoing off the walls as he smacked Sam's hand away.

Every part of him was glowing. "Let me go!"

Pulling back, glowing. "Me-"

*Pats him gently* Sweet baby ghost boy. I'm so mean to you. I'm not sorry but I love you.

Next guaranteed update is July 8, but as you can see, I'm very easily convinced to post stuff a week early, and I've still got a decent amount of prewritten chapters I can get through.

So, thoughts?


	4. Name Thy Enemy

Welcome back to Connections, in which Danny finally puts his magical protagonist powers to use and I really love Sam. Have I mentioned that I really love Sam? Because she's an amazing disaster child who's _trying._

Also, my favourite character! My sweet bundle of good intentions with a body count! My small murder boy- no, not that small murder boy, the other- no, not that one, the _other other_ small murder boy-

It has occurred to me that I might have a type when it comes to character creation.

Onwards!

* * *

 **Chapter 4;** _ **Name Thy Enemy**_

Her parents had found out she'd been skipping school.

Sam sat on the couch across from her parents, and stared off to the side. As her mother continued on with a lecture about how _disappointing_ she was, she focused intensely on the houseplant sitting on the table beside her. Her mother's latest redecoration attempt had shoved it between the chair and a wall, where it was wilting. Someone should put it in the sunlight. A dying plant wasn't good for her parents' precious _image._

"Samantha," her mother said tensely, and Sam fixed the woman with a scowl. Her mother copied it. "You were the one who requested to stay at this school. If this is how you're going to act, we're going to have to reconsider sending you to Showenhower's School for G-"

Sam was on her feet in a second. "Don't you fucking dare!" She snapped.

"Language, young lady!" Pamela Manson was on her feet as well, glaring at her daughter as her husband sighed. "You aren't making a very convincing argument, Samantha! A boarding school is exactly what misbehaving _children-_ "

"I'm not a child!" Sam screamed. Why did every conversation with her mother turn to this?! "You really think that taking me away from everything I've known, and that I _care about-_ "

"You've skipped nearly a week of school, Samantha!" Pamela cut in, "Don't start pretending you care about that place when you refuse to go! We have been lenient, young lady-"

" _Lenient?!_ You keep trying to force me into your stupid fucking goals-"

"Language-"

"It's a word, _Mother!_ Deal with it!" Sam's fist clenched, and she looked for something to hit. "Do you even care why I haven't gone? Do you care about anything beside your next damn dinner party or trying to force me into a life I don't want?! I never asked for any of this shit!" She kicked the coffee table; the leg dented under the force. "If you're going to pretend you care, you could at least put more effort into it instead of constantly trying to _force me-_ "

 _"Force_ is the only thing you can grasp-"

The room shattered. Sam spun around; the coffee table she'd kicked had had broken and fallen, smashing the houseplant's pot. Pieces of shattered ceramic, dirt, and a few fallen leaves were scattered around her boots. She'd probably killed the plant.

Sam turned back slowly, looking up at her mother's furious face and her father's blank disappointment.

She ran out of the room.

For an hour, Sam found herself sitting between rows in her greenhouse, staring at her feet. She tried to focus on the moisture clinging to the air and her skin, or the earthy smell stuck in her nose, or _anything_ but what she saw every time she closed her eyes.

Danny, one hand outstretched, his foot caught in the wires as the portal hummed behind him. Even when she blinked, Sam could still see his eyes stretched wide, how he'd strained to reach her, how the portal had cut them apart and _she'd just started screaming-_

Sam forced her eyes open and took a long breath in. She couldn't face him again. Not after she'd practically killed him. Not after she'd pulled that _thing_ out with him.

Typically, Sam wasn't the type to run away. She faced her problems head on and fought through them until everything worked out a way she liked. But she'd never caused anything like this. She'd gone in the portal, _she'd_ gotten Danny to push that button, and she'd unleashed whatever the staticy thing was on the world. And she barely even knew him!

There was a tap outside the greenhouse. Sam took a deep breath in and looked over the rows as her grandma hobbled through the door. She was leaning heavily on her cane, and gave Sam a gentle smile. "Come here, Bubbeleh," she said, and Sam moved quickly into her grandma's arms.

"Grandma, I did something horrible." Sam whispered. Her grandma's hand ran through her hair. "I did something absolutely horrible to a kid I barely know."

Her grandma hummed softly. "Have you apologized?"

Sam shook her head.

"You should start there." She rubbed small circles in Sam's back, "Have you given any more thought to what we talked about a couple weeks ago?"

Again, Sam shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Mom would never agree to go to it."

"Don't you worry about your mother; you leave that part to me." She pulled out of the hug, "I'm asking if _you_ want it. Bubbeleh, you both need someone to help you work through whatever's happened between you two."

"She started it." These fights with her mother hadn't been a thing before Sam's first day at Casper High. Things hadn't been _good_ before, but they were definitely better than this.

"Well, we're going to fix it." Ida squeezed her granddaughter's shoulder, "We can talk about this later. You _did_ break a table, Bubbeleh. You have to clean that up."

Sam nodded, and let her grandmother lead her out of the greenhouse. "You're not going to make me go to school on Monday, are you?"

"That's not my decision to make," she replied. "But if it was, I would. Whatever you've done, you can't fix it by hiding."

Sam thought of that _thing_ she'd let out of the portal and looked away. Slowly, she nodded and clenched her fists. "Thanks," she whispered.

She'd stop hiding, and wouldn't run anymore. This was her mistake, and she'd get that ghost away from Danny if it was the last thing she ever did.

.-.

Jazz had vetoed Tucker's offer to stay the night, claiming that her brother was still too sick for that. So Tucker had called Danny several times over the weekend, and would stay on call for _hours_ just to make sure he was okay and that staticy _thing_ hadn't repossessed his friend. His efforts were surprisingly successful; the static had avoided Danny completely.

But in the end, neither of them had gotten very much sleep. That was nothing new for Danny; even before the portal, it was a miracle if he got a full night's sleep. Tucker had pulled his fair share of all-nighters as well, but they had been _planned_ and not caused by stress. Now, the two sat side by side in science Monday morning, passing a travel mug filled with disgustingly bitter coffee between them.

Danny struggled a mouthful down and passed it back to his friend, who started chugging it. "I always knew I'd die on a Monday," he groaned, and flopped face-first onto the desk. Tucker choked and spit some coffee back into the mug. "Tuck, I'm already being stalked, please don't make me drink your backwash."

Tucker, who'd been flailing his right hand, grabbed Danny's shoulder and squeezed. "You went in the portal on a Monday. You _died_ on a Monday!"

Danny swatted his hand away, "I didn't _die!_ " He hissed, "I just- I don't know- but whatever this guy is he's _not_ a ghost. Ghosts are like, twisted dead people and not vaguely human-shaped static."

"He came from a _ghost_ portal," Tucker argued, and Danny motioned for him to lower his voice. A couple classmates turned their way, but none paid attention for more than a few seconds. "Speaking of which, we should give him a codename."

"I'm not naming the static that keeps trying to steal my body!" Danny's frantic whisper was drowned out by the final bell. Danny looked at the door just as Mr. Falluca slipped in, Sam and her two friends right on his heels. He gave them a disapproving look, which the group of girls ignored, and Danny met Sam's eyes.

For several long, awkward moments they held eye contact before Sam broke away from her friends. "Move," she ordered, grabbing a chair and sliding it between Danny and Tucker. The two pulled their chairs slightly apart to give her some room, exchanging a confused look and pretending they hadn't before Sam could notice.

Mister Falluca watched the exchange with a curious look before turning towards the whiteboard. Danny felt a piece of paper nudge his left arm.

Sam had placed her open notebook between them. ' _Is the ghost here?'_ She'd written.

Danny grabbed a pencil and quickly scribbled back. _'_ _Not rn, but Tuck met him Sat.'_

Sam gave Tucker a quick look before writing back, _'_ _has he just been hanging around you?'_

Danny nudged her and nodded. Mr. Falluca turned back around, and Sam pulled her notebook back. Danny saw her write a note in the margins, _'_ _all talk at lunch.'_

Again, Danny nodded. He looked back up at the board, and froze. A mass of static floated right in his way, flickering hands starting to take shape. One limb reached out, towards the teacher-

Danny's hand shot into the air. "May I go to the bathroom?" he asked quickly.

Mr. Falluca frowned, looking rather surprised. The static stopped reaching for him. "I suppose, but class has just started-"

Danny was already on his feet. "Thanks!" Danny grabbed the hall pass and practically ran out of the room. If he was right, the static was stuck to _him,_ and went where he went. There was no way he was going to let it hurt anyone else.

Danny ran into an empty bathroom and spun around, facing the static. Just as he'd expected, it'd followed him. Slowly, Danny pulled his phone from his pocket and pressed record. _Just like before. I can do this. I can do this._ "Start talking. What do you-"

Something _roared_ in his ears, and Danny dropped his phone. Twisting, awful sounds screamed back at him. He crashed to the bathroom floor, hands flying up to his ears.

Just as quickly as it had started, the sound stopped. Danny reached for his phone and looked back up at the static, waiting for more screams. None came.

"You're kind of a jerk," he muttered, "you know that, right?" The static buzzed in his ears. "Yeah, yeah, save it for when I can actually hear you." His thumb hovered over the 'stop' button. "...Why can I hear you now, anyway? On Saturday I had to listen to a recording."

The bathroom door swung open and Danny, still on the ground, looked up to see Dash Baxter.

"Hey Fenton," Dash said, and high-fived some of his other jock buddies. The only one Danny recognized was Kwan; the others must be older students. "We haven't seen you for the last week. Where were you?"

Danny pulled back, laughing nervously. The static had disappeared. _Thanks._ "Oh, uh, y'know," he realized he was still on the ground and promptly stood up. "I was... busy?"

Dash stepped towards him, most of his group fanning out behind him.

"Wow, Dash, do you really need that many people to hold your hand as you pee?" The words slipped out of Danny's mouth and he immediately regretted everything he had ever done.

Dash's face twisted in fury as he lunged forward and grabbed Danny by his collar. Danny yelped as he was pulled off the ground, and the static reappeared beside him. A vaguely hand-shaped blob reached out and passed right through Dash's arm.

"I think we should give Fen _turd_ a present to welcome him back," Dash called, and Danny watched as the other jocks grabbed his arms. One pushed a stall door open.

"Hey!" Danny tried to struggle free, "Hey, get off me, _hey!_ " He yanked a leg loose before it was immediately grabbed again, and the jocks hoisted him up. "Dash, I swear to _God,_ if you don't-"

The static screamed in his ears again and Danny fell face-first onto the floor. The lights flickered above him, and one of the jocks shouted as the world twisted, turned, threw them aside-

Danny struggled to sit up, blood running from his injured nose, and stared through the static reaching for him. Dash and his friends were running through the open door, screaming- and standing beside it, with a hand gesturing formally at the door, was a flickering hooded man dressed in black fabrics. When he caught Danny looking at him, he gave a thumbs up.

Danny, trying to stop his nose from bleeding, hesitantly returned it.

There was a terrifying _crash_ and Danny spun around to see that the paper towel dispenser had fallen from the wall. He looked back at the door as it swung closed, with no one standing beside it.

"Okay..." Danny glanced to his left, where the mass of static almost seemed to be reaching for his phone. Danny grabbed a paper towel and threw it at him. "I'll listen to it later. I've got to go back to class." He scooped up a couple more sheets and tried to clean the blood off himself and the floor. The static continued to sit there, looking almost like he was trying to poke the napkin Danny had thrown at him. When Danny grabbed his phone and finally stopped the recording, there was a disappointed buzz.

Danny rolled his eyes and held the door open, mimicking the motion his flickering saviour had made as he addressed the static, positive that had been the same man who'd saved him from the fog. "After you."

.-.

At lunch, Danny shoved his stuff in his locker as Tucker watched the hall behind them. "He's not here," he said. "He's been MIA since the bathroom thing." Oddly enough, so had Dash's group. _Huh._ Danny grabbed his lunch card and filed that thought nicely away under 'not important.' It felt like it was already dealt with, anyway.

"Exactly," Tucker said. Danny had explained it all to him during History, and had a theory that Tucker was a lot more upset about it than he'd admit. "Dude, they aren't human. They don't care about our rules."

"Yeah, but the flickery guy seems nice." _He saved my life._

"You haven't seen his face," Tucker pointed out, and Danny caught sight of Sam heading their way. "I've watched enough movies to know that he's either going to be your dead relative or super evil."

He raised an eyebrow, "If they don't use our rules why would _movies_ be right?"

Sam rushed over and grabbed both their sleeves, "Come on," she hissed and started to pull.

"Give me a second," Danny said, pulling her hand off. "I need to close my locker fir-" Sam's steel-toed boot shot up and kicked the locker door closed. Danny turned slowly back to see her staring him down. "...Never mind, where are we going?"

Sam pulled them into the library, grabbing a table in the corner. She sat down across from Danny and Tucker, pulling a thick book from her bag. "I picked this up this morning," she said, and dropped it in front of them. It looked old.

"A Beginner's Guide to Banishing Supernatural Creatures?" Tucker read, "Sam, no offence, but this sounds fake as shit."

Sam narrowed her eyes, "Yeah? So does the fact Danny can get possessed by a void person and suddenly become albino."

"Hey!" Danny pulled the book towards him, "Guys, don't start fighting about this, we all want him gone. Can't we just-" the static appeared behind Sam. "Uh..."

Sam ducked under the table and slid out on Danny's right side. She stared at the static and narrowed her eyes as he seemed to wave. Tucker just looked around wildly.

"Where is he?" Tucker whispered, "It's not your bathroom buddy, is it?"

Sam raised her eyebrows, "Bathroom buddy?"

Danny waved her off. "It's complicated." He didn't feel like talking about Flicker.

The thought caught Danny off guard. _Flicker? I guess I can call him that. It's not like he's made any effort to tell me his real name._

"Well, if it's the other guy, how come I can't see him anymore? Is it too dim?" Tucker took off his glasses, squinted around the room, and put them back on. He reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone, tapping the screen twice. "What's going-" Tucker sucked a breath in, dropped his phone, and shoved his chair back. He screamed as it fell, dumping him on the ground.

Sam gave him a disappointed look as Danny scooped up the phone. "We're in a _library,_ quiet down."

"Never mind," Tucker said quickly, "I found him, never mind, we're all cool-"

Tucker had opened his camera. Danny could feel his hands shaking, and he quit listening to his friend's ramble. Slowly, Danny raised the phone, and pointed it at the staticy figure in front of him.

His stalker didn't look quite solid, and most of his features were still mushed together. He looked more like a super low-resolution image than an actual person. But Danny could see a round face with the eyes squeezed shut. His hair was curly and knotted, hanging together in bright white clumps. He had his hands pressed against his ears; his skin was browner than Danny's own, but still looked sunken and pale. He was wearing a white shirt with a golden design similar to a duel-bladed battle axe on the chest, and another of what might have been waves at the end of his sleeves. His pants had the same colour scheme, along with a black belt holding them up, but his legs seemed to be forced together.

As Danny gawked at him, he slowly pulled his hands off his ears and opened his eyes. They were glowing a bright green, and staring right at him. He raised a hand-

Sam had gone to help Tucker up. "What're you looking at?"

Danny slammed the phone down. "Nothing!" His voice squeaked and Sam raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I can't see anything different or weird, so-"

Neither Sam nor Tucker looked like they actually believed him, but let it slide. "Hand me the book," Sam said, and Danny slid it off the table towards her. She began to flip through it, "Most supernatural beings have to leave if you ask them too," she said. "We could try burning sage, throwing salt at him- but according to your parents those don't work on ghosts. This is our best bet."

Danny frowned, and tried not to focus on the weird flailing the static was- _wait._ Danny grabbed the phone again, and through it watched the other being wave at him. "He's, uh, only here half the time anyway," Danny said quickly, "I don't see the point in-"

"Danny," Sam cut him off, "do you want him to stop stealing your body or not?" She flipped another page. "We need to use his name when we ask him to leave."

Danny shook his head; he really didn't want to think about the body-stealing. "Sam, there's no way he's actually going to leave when we say his _name."_ The 'static' immediately stopped waving and pulled his hands in close. Danny frowned; then again, he didn't want it to keep happening either. "Actually, yeah, sure, if it gets him to stay out of my body why not?" His ears started to buzz, and Danny passed his phone back down to Tucker. He tried to give the static a glare, and it must have worked since the buzzing stopped.

"He's not going to tell us his name," Tucker pointed out, "do we just give him one?"

Once again, there was a soft buzzing in Danny's ears. Fear twisted in his chest; _this is a bad idea. This is a really bad idea. I knew the portal was bad and this is also super, super bad-_ "Guys, I'm not sure if we should do this."

Sam and Tucker gave him almost identical, and incredibly terrifying, looks. "We're doing it," they said in sync, and looked back down at the book.

"Oh," Danny's chest felt like it was twisting and he could feel his face flush. "That was creepy, but okay?"

Tucker nudged Sam, and they both reached out to pull Danny onto the floor with them. As they did so, he looked back at the table. The static was halfway through it. Danny wondered how he'd managed that.

"I vote we call him something stupid," Tucker said, "like Craig, or- or Bill!"

Sam rolled her eyes, "There's nothing wrong with those names." She looked up at the table and frowned, "Danny, is he still here?"

"He's in the table," Danny muttered.

"Then let's work fast," Sam tapped his arm with the edge of the book. "It says that if we don't know his name we can call him something that represents everything he is. It won't work as well, but-"

"Well, that'd be helpful if we knew anything about him." Tucker hissed, the pitch of his voice going up; he was terrified, too. "What can we call him? Static? Spooky? Ghosty Jones?"

Danny caught sight of Flicker leaning against a bookshelf, slowly shaking his head. Something pressed against the edges of his mind. He heard a woman's voice whisper a name.

Danny stared at the creature who'd been following him, terrorizing him, and stealing his body. He bared his teeth. _"Phantom,"_ he hissed, and felt the static tense. Danny rose to his feet, and saw Flicker watching him from the corner of his eye. "You will stop following me everywhere, you will _never_ take control of my body again, and you will go away. Is this understood?"

The static- Phantom- nodded, pulled back, and kept his limbs pulled in close. The fear was gone. For a second, Danny felt a prickle of guilt- and then he was on the floor, struggling to catch his breath. Sam and Tucker were calling his name, but all Danny could hear was buzzing. Phantom stood across from him, his form turning from static to white and gold- Flicker stood a little ways away, resting a hand on his shaking head-

Phantom was almost solid. Green eyes glowed, focused only on him. Hair was white smoke that wavered in a nonexistent breeze, and lips pulled back to show short fangs.

He hissed. Danny heard the words "It is."

And then Phantom was gone.

Danny was still on the floor, shaking. Pins and needles climbed up his limbs. Distantly, he heard Sam ask what had just happened.

A bolt of lightning hit Danny in the center of his chest and he _screamed._

* * *

Oh, Tucker. I love you and how you would survive a horror movie. And Danny, you're finally putting your protagonist powers to good use! Also, have I mentioned that I love Sam?

Okay, I'll stop with that joke for now. Have the ghost language translations from Chapter 3!

Green eyes glowed brighter when they saw him. "Hi!"

"Please don't be mad," he whispered.

"[Friend]," Not-Danny mimicked, and then frowned. "I only understood [friend], your language is dumb."

*Gently pats the small ghost boy* Sweet sweet child who nearly murdered the protagonist. A good boy. A good (bad) boy.

Next guaranteed update is July 22! So, thoughts?


	5. Phantom

So guess who a job? I did! Yay! My first day was actually yesterday, hence why this chapter's a bit late. That, and FFN actually _refused_ to let me upload it. Apparently this site doesn't like plot advancement.

The thing is, this Life Announcement is necessary because my job will definitely come before my writing. Once school starts back up, I'll probably have a bit of trouble updating every two weeks. I say a bit, because this fic consumes more of my waking thoughts than is healthy, but we're also getting close to my last prewritten chapter.

Anyway, that's enough of that! Welcome back to Connections, where Danny's protagonist powers continue to screw him over in a plot-important way. And you know it's _very_ important, because the title's not me making a bad joke or trying to be clever this time. It's just a character's name. Spooky, huh?

Onwards!

* * *

 **Chapter 5;** _ **Phantom**_

Once again, Danny was in his room. He'd woken up surrounded by teachers, Sam and Tucker no longer at his side, and Jazz trying to fight her way through the small crowd. Someone had asked him who 'she' was, and Danny assumed they meant his sister.

He wasn't so sure anymore. It seemed like such an odd question. Danny had absolutely no idea what it could mean.

Either way, Jazz and his parents were currently upstairs, probably arguing about what to do with him. The teachers had all had their own theories about why he'd 'fainted,' and Danny hadn't bothered to correct any of them. It wasn't like he could explain what Phantom had done anyway.

Danny heard his phone vibrate, and ignored what had to be Tucker's fifth text in the last hour. He didn't feel like doing anything; especially not trying to explain Flicker to his best friend. Everything just seemed pointless anyway. Nothing worked, so why should he even try?

His light flickered on, and Danny buried his face in a pillow with a groan. "Jazz, I don't care, leave me alone."

His light flickered off, then back on. Danny groaned louder and turned to glare at his sister- and instead saw Flicker leaning against the door frame. The lights continued to flicker.

"Hi?" Danny squeaked, and Flicker gave him a two-fingered salute. The lights stayed off now. "You've been here a lot today. Are you going to electrocute me too?"

Flicker shrugged and the door opened behind him right before he popped out of existence.

Danny blinked. "Uh- okay?" He laid back down, "I'm, uh, just gonna-" his lights turned on again. "Okay, fine, I'm coming!"

Flicker led him into the kitchen, never walking, always just appearing where he wanted Danny to go. He stopped in the open doorway to the lab.

Danny took a step back and nearly bumped into the kitchen table. "Okay. Look, this is weird enough already- I'm not going anywhere near the portal." He had the sense that Flicker was frowning at him, but considering that he still had his hood up and that functionally made his face a void with what Danny _assumed_ were eyes, it was impossible to tell. "Seriously. Last time that thing almost killed me, and I definitely don't want to touch my parents' stuff. I'm going back to my room." He turned around.

Flicker was in his face now, his hands on Danny's shoulders. He shoved him, and Danny fell- how could he be falling? He was in the middle of the kitchen, why was he still falling-

He was on the lab floor.

Danny sat up, utterly confused, and at the top of the stairs Flicker waved as he closed the door.

"...And I have officially decided that I don't like you." Danny picked himself off the floor and looked around. The portal twisted, welcoming him.

Danny held up a hand and smacked himself across the face. _Not welcoming! A) it doesn't have a conscience, and B) it nearly killed you! Me. Why was I thinking in third person?_ He slapped himself again and heard the lab around him buzz. It almost sounded like it was trying to talk to him. _Okay, this just got significantly weirder._

"Phantom?" He called, taking a step towards the portal. "Hello? Anyone?" He stopped only a few feet away from the portal. Danny crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, staring the contraption down. "Yeah, this is _definitely_ the part in a horror movie where someone dies. Great. Fantastic." He threw his hands in the air and glared at the walls of the lab, "It's not like I _wanted_ to do stuff with my life or anything! No, no, getting stalked by the spooky static squad is definitely how I like to spend my time! Well you know what? I'm _done!_ You hear me Phantom, Flicker, and whoever else is watching me?! I am _done_ playing your game!" His fists were clenched. He was shaking. Danny turned and glared at the portal, taking a step towards it and pointing a finger at the swirling green. "And you- you can shut up! I don't care what you are, but I'm not listening!" His ears were ringing. The fans were far too loud overhead. Pins and needles started to poke at Danny's skin as he took a few more steps forward.

"I am _done,_ " he hissed, and kicked the frame. "I don't care-"

Danny could hear someone screaming.

He was in a hallway- how had he gotten in a hallway?!- and he was running. His heart was pounding and twisting, and he _knew_ it was only a matter of time before **They** caught him. If **They** caught him running again, **They** would kill him.

He blinked. He was surrounded by green. Someone was in front of him, with golden hair and a white robe- _gold and white, nonononono-_ they grabbed his wrist-

He was screaming. Everything hurt. He wanted to go home.

There was someone beside him, injured. They were surrounded by ectoplasm. Danny's heart was pounding- ectoplasm was _poisonous!_ He reached out, trying desperately to grab onto the person beside him- he had to help, he had to do _something-_ he grabbed their wrist and pulled.

Danny was on the lab floor with white hair and gloves.

Danny screamed, and a flash of light threw him across the lab. He was back in his own body, and glaring at the portal. "What the heck was _that_ for?! What did you just- how- what _are_ you?"

The twists in the portal morphed into the outline of a person and pointed over Danny's shoulder. He could barely make out something that looked like a hood. "Wait, Flicker? What- that doesn't- fine! Whatever! This is the kind of stuff that happens to me!" He threw his hands in the air and spun around. There was someone lying on the ground behind him.

Danny dove forwards, looking back at the now-plain portal before shaking the unconscious, unmoving person. They- he?- had white hair and skin slightly darker than his own- _I feel like I'm missing something obvious-_ and were dressed in a fancy-looking white and gold outfit. Branching, sunken black and green lines covered the exposed parts of his arms.

Danny shook him harder.

"Wha...?" The person mumbled, and Danny relaxed. "Lemme sleep."

"No, sorry, not happening." Danny rolled him onto his side and once again felt as if he was missing something obvious. "Come on, I have no idea what you're doing here but you need to get up." Danny brushed some hair from the person's face, fingers briefly pressing against his cheek. "Yeesh, you're freezing. Let's get you off the floor." Danny wrapped his arms around the other's chest and pulled him closer to the cabinets. He leaned the half-asleep boy against them and shook his shoulder again.

"Leave me alone," he muttered, and pushed Danny's hand away.

"You're the one in my house," Danny pointed out, "what's your name?"

The other finally opened one bright green eye and _screamed._ Danny threw his hands over his ears as the other boy scrambled away from him, trying to make himself seem smaller. His upper lip pulled back to reveal tiny fangs as he _hissed._

Something clicked in his mind and Danny jumped to his feet. "Phantom?"

Phantom hissed again, holding his hands close to his chest. He was shivering. And glowing. Danny felt sharp claws of fear dig themselves into his chest and he nearly fell back to the ground. This couldn't be happening. Phantom was supposed to be a weird ball of static, not- not _solid!_ This couldn't be happening!

Phantom had stopped hissing, and was now just glaring at him. He was still shaking. Danny looked at his hand and saw that he was too.

"Um," Danny coughed, trying not to betray how _terrified_ he was, "hi? I'm Danny. You're... Phantom, right?"

Phantom wrinkled his nose and glared harder. It was unsettling; he had a childishly round face and slightly high-pitched voice, but also looked like he was seconds away from ripping Danny's throat out. "Order me again and I'll throw you in this thing!" He lashed out with his right hand and smacked the portal's frame. Danny gave a sympathetic wince as Phantom pulled his hand back, holding it close when green blood welled around his scraped knuckles. He frowned and smeared some of it along the lines on his arm.

"That's disgusting," Danny said, and blinked in surprise when Phantom replied by sticking his tongue out at him.

The ghost stood up and slowly, and while keeping one eye on Danny, stepped towards the opposite counter. One beaker was near the edge. Phantom reached out a hand and poked it. The beaker fell of the edge and shattered on the floor, and Phantom's face lit up. Danny watched in horror as the ghost grabbed some more beakers and smashed them on the ground, laughing.

"Hey- Phantom, stop that!" Danny snapped, and across the room the ghost grew tense. After a moment he lowered his hands and turned to face Danny. "Okay, do I have your attention now?" Phantom glared at him, and Danny screamed internally. "That's a yes. Well, okay- okay, this seems to be working. Phantom, what do you want with me?"

Again, he tensed. When he spoke, his voice had no emotion. "I have no desires regarding you specifically." He shook his head and glared again, fear and anger returning to his tone. "You don't have to order me, you stupid human, you can just ask!"

"Oh," Danny frowned, "but you're a _ghost,_ how do I know you're telling the truth?"

Phantom mimicked his expression. "And _you're_ a human, how do I know _you're_ telling the truth?"

Danny huffed, "Don't do that."

He looked confused. "Don't do what?"

"Mimic me!"

Phantom's face lit up with a terrifying grin. Slower, he said, "Mimic me!"

"Stop that!"

"Stop that!"

"What are you, five?!"

"What are _you,_ five?"

"Phantom, stop mocking me!" Danny shouted, and crossed his arms when the ghost tensed. "If you're not going to reply to anything else, then _Phantom,_ don't repeat the things I say just to annoy me. Got it?"

"It is understood," Phantom said blankly, and nodded before his shoulders dropped again. Danny nodded too and stared him down.

"Phantom, why have you been following me?"

Again, the ghost tensed and spoke in monotone. "I lacked the energy to make a physical form and was stuck in a semi-conscious state drifting near you." He shook his head and flinched. Phantom started to pull at his short sleeves as he stared at the ground.

Danny took a step towards the ghost and watched as he flinched back. His heart was still pounding. This didn't feel right. "What am I _doing?"_ He smacked himself across the face and Phantom flinched again. "This is wrong. This- you shouldn't even be _real,_ for one thing!" He pointed a finger at the almost-cowering ghost, "Nothing about this should be happening! I'm crazy, that's it, that _has_ to be it-"

"Um," Phantom said softly, "I- um, I am real though." He poked himself in the face, "See? Real."

"That's exactly what a hallucination would say!" Danny challenged, and saw how Phantom flinched when he raised his voice. "Okay. Okay this is going really badly _really_ fast. Let's try something else. What do I have to do to get you to go away?" It took Danny a few seconds to realize he hadn't ordered the ghost to reply, but in those few seconds he saw Phantom's face light up.

"Okay, so, uh- um-" he started cowering again, "I- I- don't know. We're leashed? Yeah, we have to be, I pulled it. And I can feel it right now. S-so maybe if- you've changed your stuff since then, so…" he pulled at his shirt and frowned.

"I have no idea what you're saying," Danny said. "Why would we be leashed? There's nothing on us, and we're not animals. That makes no sense-" Phantom pulled his shirt over his head and threw it on the ground. "And neither does that." Phantom pulled off his pants as well, and Danny quickly covered his eyes. "Dude, gross! Don't take your pants off! What are you _doing?_ " He spread his fingers slightly and watched the mostly nude teenager stomp on his clothes in horror. "This is my life now. Are you done yet? Could you _please_ put your clothes back on?!" Phantom replied by taking off his shoes, and was starting to take off his underwear when Danny covered his eyes again. "Dude, why?"

"Die!" Phantom shouted as he threw his clothes into the portal. "Die, die, die!"

"I wish I could," Danny replied.

Phantom gave one final shout and Danny risked a look through his fingers. Phantom was staring into the portal, shoulders shaking, and completely naked.

"Oh, _God-_ no. Nope." Danny undid his belt and pulled off his own pants. He'd be fine in his boxers. He tossed them at Phantom, peaking out as they landed at the ghost's feet. "Just- just put those on." He covered his eyes again. "Tell me when you're not naked anymore."

A couple seconds passed. Danny wondered if this was actually happening. "They're on," Phantom said, and he pulled his hands down.

Phantom's exposed skin was covered in sunken green and black marks. There was the same branching scar he'd seen before, a long slash across his chest, discoloured bits along his neck that reminded Danny a little too much of a hand- and he was missing a toenail. The nail on his right big toe was just gone, with a gross green scab in its place.

"You done?" Phantom crossed his arms in front of his chest and Danny pulled back. The ghost was glaring at him.

"You look like you lived in a blender." Danny said, and immediately regretted it. Past all the marks, he could see muscles on the ghost. _He could break me. Okay, Fenton, new plan; run. Wait, why does a ghost have muscle? He's dead, how does this even work?_

Phantom tipped his head to the side. "What's a blender?"

"It's a pitcher with blades in it," Danny replied, and spoke slower when he noticed how lost Phantom looked. "You use it to make, like, smoothies?"

"What's a smoothie?"

"...Mashed up fruit that you drink?"

Phantom's face scrunched up and wrinkled his nose. "Ew."

Danny stared at the white-haired, half-naked, scarred teenager in front of him and wondered how his life had come to this. "Hey, I've got an idea," he said, "how about we go upstairs, get you some new clothes, and you give me my pants back?"

The ghost frowned and pulled at the waist. "I can give them back now-"

"Nope!" Danny rushed to his side and grabbed his wrists. "Please don't start taking off your clothes again. Please. _Please._ "

Phantom had tensed when Danny grabbed him, and he could feel his heart hammering in his chest. This was bad. Something very, very wrong was happening and he was going to get hurt and-

He needed to get out.

Danny pulled his hands away from Phantom and watched as the ghost tried to shrink away from him. For a second, he looked like a kicked puppy- and then the fangs were out again, and he hissed in Danny's face. "Don't _touch_ me."

Danny threw his hands in the air and took several steps back. "Gotcha. No touching. Touch free zone." He took another step back. His heart was still pounding. He felt sick. "Want to... go do the clothes thing?"

Phantom narrowed his eyes and glared at Danny. After a moment, he nodded.

.-.

In the back seat of a car, an older teen took off his headphones and looked over at the empty seat beside him. "Oh, hey Flicker," he smiled, "what do you need?" And then the smile dropped, "You did _what?"_

In the front seat, the pair of adults adjusted their front mirror to watch the one-sided argument as they passed by a sign.

' _Amity Park- a nice place to live!'_

* * *

Alternative chapter title; 'I think I just set myself up to have Phantom assume ketchup is a tomato smoothie and have Danny walk in on him drinking some, horrified, as Sam and Tucker sit across the table with evil grins.' Unfortunately, that had to be cut due to length.

So my boy's here! My beautiful soft boy! My precious little murder boy- okay, I've run that joke into the ground already. And he's not _really_ murdery. Technically. Probably. He's a sweetheart. A mostly nude sweetheart.

And on another note, don't worry about Flicker. He's harmless. Super trustworthy. The best possible ally. I wonder if any of you guys can figure out _who_ he is before Danny does?

Next update will _probably_ be the 29th, since I think I'm going to be busy on August 5th and the next chapter was almost just another part of this one. Until then, thoughts?


	6. Battle Armor

I'm good at getting things done when I say I will, what are you talking about.

Welcome back to Connections, where Sam and Tucker's second official meeting with the local ghost boy goes about as well as their firsts. Also, I've worked for a week and am nearly dead. I'm a good sorta/kinda/mostly adult, I swear.

I don't have much to say here, so let's jump in! Onwards!

* * *

 **Chapter 6;** _ **Battle Armor**_

Jazz and his parents were still in the Ops Center, so sneaking Phantom back to his room was surprisingly easy. "Make yourself at home," Danny muttered, motioning to his room with one hand as he placed the other on the back of his neck. Phantom automatically walked past him and flopped face-first onto his bed. As Danny raised an eyebrow, the ghost grabbed a blanket and started to wrap it around himself like a burrito.

Danny looked over the dirty clothes coating his room's floor, nudging a shirt with his foot before reaching down to scoop it up. It smelled clean. "Here," Danny offered, and tossed the shirt at Phantom. In one swift motion, the ghost sat up and pulled away from it. Still wrapped in the blankets, he gave Danny a wide-eyed stare. Slowly, he reached out a hand and gently poked the shirt.

"I don't like it," Phantom said, and nudged it off the bed.

"Oh for the love of-" Danny scooped the shirt back up and shoved it in Phantom's face. The ghost leaned back to avoid it, hissing again. "If you were going to be that picky about clothes you shouldn't have thrown yours into the portal!"

"I was _helping!_ "

"Naked people don't help anyone!" Phantom hissed again and Danny threw the shirt over his shoulder. "Fine! You don't have to wear that! Are you happy?"

Phantom wrinkled his nose and sunk deeper into the blankets. "It feels scratchy. It's just as bad as the other ones."

Danny raised an eyebrow, "You have a problem with the way things feel?"

Phantom shrunk down more and Danny could feel his heart pounding. It was hard to breathe. He was barely aware of how Phantom nodded.

"You know," Danny said, "I- I actually think my sister did laundry, so she's probably got some clean clothes. They might feel better? I'll go get them." He backed out of the room in a few quick steps. He was shaking. There was so much shaking. There was always so much _shaking._

Across the hall in Jazz's room, Danny tried to calm himself down. There was a poster on her wall that said _just breathe_ in cursive, and Danny found it to be extremely unhelpful. Laundry forgotten, he reached over to tear it off the wall, and felt his hand brush against something on Jazz's nightstand; her phone.

Danny reached for that instead, easily unlocking his sister's phone- really, her password was _his name-_ and scrolling through her contacts. Within a few seconds he'd found and dialed Tucker's number.

"Hello?"

"It's Danny," he took a breath in and kept his voice low. "So, uh... my ghost stalker's a real person now."

Tucker was silent for a second. "What?"

"Like- I think Flicker pushed me down the stairs and I kicked the portal and now he's like, got flesh? Also green blood. And fangs." Danny ran a hand through his hair and rested it on the back of his neck. "Phantom, I mean, with the flesh thing. Not Flicker. He was in the portal though, I think, which was weird-"

"Danny," Tucker interrupted, "where are you right now?"

"Jazz's room- he threw his clothes in the portal." He looked down at his boxers, trying to breathe. They came in quick and shallow gasps. Breathing was _not_ helping. That poster was full of lies. "I gave him my pants. I tried to give him a shirt but he got upset, so I'm stealing some of Jazz's clothes. He's mostly naked right now and I'm really uncomfortable."

"I'll be there in a couple minutes," Tucker said. Danny heard another voice on his side of call as he dropped down beside his sister's bed. "Where's Jazz?"

"Uh- Ops Center, with Mom and Dad. She's been talking to them for the last hour."

Tucker hesitated. "Go near them. We'll be there soon, Sam's just grabbing her-"

" _Sam?!"_ Danny flinched as he realized how loud his voice had been. "What's she doing there?"

He heard Tucker protest, then Sam's voice took over the call. "Tucker told me Dash attacked you in the bathroom today and that Phantom chased him off."

"Uh- actually, I don't know for sure it was him-"

"Danny," Sam interrupted, "Mr. Lancer found Dash near the dumpsters with bruises and a bleeding nose. And that's just what we could see. Phantom hurt him."

Danny's heart was pounding again. His claim that 'it might've been Flicker' died in his throat. "Oh."

"Stay away from him until we get there," she said, and handed the phone back to Tucker.

"My Mom's giving us a ride," Tucker said, "we're on our way. Keep talking, Danny-"

Something crashed in his room and Danny dropped the phone. He heard Tucker shout something, but Danny had already abandoned the call and rushed back to his room. Phantom, still wrapped in the blanket and curled up in a ball, had knocked over his desk chair and pinned himself underneath it.

Slowly, Danny raised an eyebrow. "How- _why-_ " he pulled the desk chair up and stared down at Phantom. "Stay." He said, and returned to Jazz's room. There was a basket of unfolded clean laundry on her bed, which he grabbed before heading back to his room.

Danny kicked the door closed behind him and dumped the basket onto his floor. Phantom watched the action, wrinkled his nose, and sunk deeper into the blankets.

"No, no, none of that." Danny pulled out a pair of his own underwear from Jazz's laundry. _For once, I'm glad she breaks into my room to clean._ "Here," he tossed them at Phantom, "give me my jeans back then put those on."

Phantom gave him a suspicious look, but pulled the underwear into his blanket fort, and sunk back down into it.

That awkward exchange was done in a minute, and with his pants back on Danny began to dig through his sister's clothes. Black leggings and an incredibly oversized sweater his Grandma Charlotte had sewn years ago were handed over to Phantom, along with a pair of Jazz's fuzzy rainbow socks he'd snatched the second he saw them. Danny knelt across from the blanket-wrapped ghost, who wouldn't stop giving him suspicious looks. His heart was still pounding; this didn't seem real.

"I can still feel the leash," Phantom muttered after a few minutes, rubbing the fabric of an oversized sleeve between his thumb and forefinger. He'd had to roll them both up past his wrists. "I don't think I took enough stuff off."

"You were literally nude, there was nothing else to take off." Danny pointed out, shifting so that he was sitting crosslegged. Phantom flinched when he moved. He twitched the toe that had been missing its nail. "Okay, what's this _magical_ leash then?"

"Um," Phantom licked his lips and continued to speak quietly, "um, it's like- um, this. Like this." he stuck a fuzzy-socked foot out of the blankets and rubbed it on the carpet. "If you go too far from what you're leashed to, then-" he reached out a hand and gently poked Danny.

Danny raised an eyebrow.

"Oh," Phantom frowned and pulled his arm back, "I thought that would work."

"Right." His heart was calming down now; Phantom really wasn't that threatening, just confusing. "So, what do we do-" Danny cut off as heavy footsteps rang through the house. "What is it now?"

There was a scream, a crash, and his door nearly broke off the hinges. Sam, having just kicked his door open, stumbled into the room with Tucker a step behind her. Danny stared at them both, mouth agape.

They took one look at Phantom before grabbing Danny by his shoulders and dragging him back.

Sam pulled off one of her boots and held it up as a weapon. "What the hell is that?!"

Phantom bared his fangs as he hissed again. Danny felt as if the world had fallen out from underneath him.

"What the hell are you?!" Tucker screamed, pointing a finger at Phantom. Everything felt far away; Danny wondered if this was all a dream.

"Stay away from me!" Phantom snapped, pulling his right fist free. Green lights sprung from underneath his fingernails and curled up in his palm. Danny's own right hand felt cold. He looked down to see his palm with a glowing green ball in it.

Everything snapped back to reality and Danny _screamed,_ throwing his right hand out and launching the ball at his window. Glass shattered, and a car alarm started down the street. Phantom's own green ball disappeared and he held his hands close to his chest. Danny felt three confused and terrified pairs of eyes stare at him.

Danny swallowed. "I don't even have a joke here; I don't know what just happened."

Phantom's eyes were wide. "You fired an ectoblast."

Danny moved his hands so they were nowhere near himself or Tucker. _Maybe I'm just dead. That's probably what's happening here._ "Neat," his voice cracked, "what's an ectobast?"

"Ghost power."

"Cool, cool."

"I was going to fire one."

"Neat, cool, very nice Phantom," the ghost wrinkled his nose at the name as Sam and Tucker exchanged a look. Danny tried, and failed, to stop his voice from getting higher-pitched. "Don't ever do that again, okay?"

Phantom nodded and started to sink back into the blankets.

Tucker cleared his throat. "Quick question Danny," he said, "what the _fuck_ is happening?" Before Danny could answer, he continued, throwing out a hand to point at Phantom. "Can you understand that thing?! Dude, what the _hell-_ "

"Hold on, is his name actually Phantom?" Sam cut in, still holding her boot. Phantom had hidden himself almost completely now, with only his _glowing_ green eyes visible from under the pile. "How did you guess that?! You just went all spacey before you said it, did he tell you?!"

"What- why are you shouting?" Danny held up his hands, trying to stay composed. "Guys, I don't know what's going on here. I got pushed down the stairs, kicked the portal, and now _apparently_ he has flesh." He pointed at Phantom, and the ghost's glowing eyes dimmed. "I think I pulled him out of the portal? Uh... yeah. This has been a weird day."

"Are they talking about me?" Phantom said, and Danny gave an awkward hand wiggle with a nod. The ghost shifted under his blankets. "Oh. That's rude. Why can't they speak in ghost like you?"

"I'm speaking English," Danny frowned, "I don't know any other languages."

"You are speaking English," Sam confirmed, "that thing's the one speaking gibberish."

"Ghost," Danny corrected, and held up his hands before anyone could start talking again. "Okay, guys, just- does _anyone_ know what's going on here?"

Slowly, Phantom poked his head out of the blanket pile and started to raise a hand. Danny motioned towards him, and the ghost gave Sam and Tucker a worried look. "Um... we're leashed. But it's, um, weird? Like I know we're leashed, but I don't know _how._ And normally I'd know, since every time before I could feel the poking and tingles through what they leashed. And, uh, we can understand each other, even though we're speaking different languages. I only know like, six English words and haven't used them at all, and you're human so you shouldn't know Ghost. Plus you stole my ectoblast."

"Thanks for the play by play Phantom, that doesn't help at all." The ghost wrinkled his nose and opened his mouth to continue, but Danny didn't let him. "Sam, Tucker? Any thoughts?"

Sam narrowed her eyes at Phantom and tossed her boot from hand to hand. Tucker, too, narrowed his eyes- but then he adjusted his glasses and said softly, "Danny, since when do you call him a ghost?"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Uh, since this all started? That's what he is."

"No," Tucker said, squeezing Danny's arm and keeping his voice low. "In school today you _refused_ to call him a ghost."

"He's right," Sam chipped in, "you kept trying to think of something else to call him."

Danny shook his head. "Wait- no, that's not-" when he thought of Phantom, he thought of ghost. Why would he think of anything else? But Sam and Tucker wouldn't lie to him, so why couldn't he just _think?_

Fourteen years of his parents lectures about how ghosts could trick and manipulate people came back to him all at once and Danny gripped the sides of his head.

A balled-up sock was tossed near him, and Danny's attention snapped back to Phantom. "Hi," the ghost- _oh my God my parents were right-_ tipped his head to the side, "what's wrong?"

Danny slowly lowered his hands and stood up. He wasn't going to show any fear, not to this _thing_ that was probably feeding off of it. "What did you do to me?"

Phantom blinked. "Um, nothing? I mean, I pulled the leash on you before, and I'm really so-"

"Don't lie to me, _ghost!_ "

"Umm, that's even farther away from my actual name-"

Danny didn't let him finish. "My parents have been telling me for _years_ about the things creatures like you can do!" He screamed, "And you thought you could fool me?!"

Phantom shook his head frantically, trying to make himself smaller. "I didn't do anything! I wasn't trying to-"

"Liar!" Danny grabbed Sam's boot and chucked it at the ghost, who yelped and dropped out of the way. "What did you do to me?! Answer me before I order you to!"

When Phantom poked his head back up, his eyes were glowing brighter and his brows were furled. His hair drifted in a nonexistent wind and his upper lip pulled back to once again reveal the fangs.

It occurred to Danny that he had made a _horrible_ _mistake_ as the ghost stood up. Phantom narrowed his eyes and morphed his legs together. Danny's feet lost contact with the ground and he _screamed_ as his friends tried desperately to hold him down. Green energy curled in Phantom's left hand- Sam flinched away from Danny's side as an ectoblast formed in his own. Phantom held out his right arm, covering it in blue-tinged static- Danny felt Tucker's tight grip pass right through him.

Danny screamed, floating up far enough to bump his head on the roof. Phantom stared up at him, fists clenched and almost completely still.

"I am _done,_ " he hissed, and Sam's other boot whacked him in the face.

Phantom collapsed, and Danny fell right onto Tucker.

Sam stepped between them, staring Phantom down. It seemed pointless; the ghost was cowering on the floor anyway, trying to block his face and keep his knees close to his chest. Danny's gut twisted. This was wrong. Yeah, his parents had been telling him for years that ghosts were evil, manipulative, uncaring creatures, and he was definitely terrified, but that didn't make this right. Nothing any of them were doing was right.

He rolled off of Tucker, heart pounding, and struggled to sit up. "Sam, wait!" He called, throwing out a hand. "Leave him alone."

Phantom lowered his arms slightly as Sam looked back at him. "He's dangerous," she said. "Your parents are the ghost _experts,_ and they said-"

"I don't care," Danny cut her off. "He's scared." Phantom was shaking. Danny was forcing himself to stay still. "He's just scared. We're all just scared."

Phantom lowered his hands and stared at Danny with his too-wide eyes. Danny felt Tucker latch onto his arm as he gave the ghost a smile. Phantom didn't return it. Sam and Tucker focused on each other, and Danny barely registered as they nodded at each other. Sam returned to his side and latched onto his other arm, and as one the trio rose to their feet.

"Phantom," Danny said, and the ghost tensed, "I need you to get and _stay_ out of my house. Got it?"

Phantom squeezed his eyes shut as he nodded. He was shaking. Danny's heart was pounding.

"Did your door get broken _again?_ "

The trio's attention snapped back to the doorway, where Jazz was giving the doorframe a rather disappointed look. The poster on his door now had a bootmark on it. Danny sunk back and sent a glance to where Phantom had been seconds before- and of course, he'd left. Just like Danny had asked him to. _Great._

Tucker wasted no time: "Ghosts are real and one's haunting your brother!"

Sam reached over and slapped Tucker on the back of his head. "Sorry about that," she said, "apparently there's a school talent show and we got a bit too excited when we rushed to tell Danny about it."

Jazz raised an eyebrow. "Since when is there a talent show?"

"It's only for the students in art-like classes," Sam continued, squeezing Danny's arm. "It's another part of the centennial celebration thing. We were going to convince Danny to let us join his."

"Right," Jazz didn't look remotely convinced. "Well, if I was you Sam, I'd head home. My parents are convinced you started up their ridiculous portal and think they've given you some made-up ghost disease."

Danny swallowed. "Ghost disease?"

"Ecto Acne. And yes, little brother, it is as stupid as it sounds." Jazz sighed and moved to join their group. "Tucker, you should head home too." She grabbed Danny's arm and pulled him to his feet, letting go the second Danny flinched. The entire right side of his body _hurt._ "Danny, you've got a huge bruise on your arm! What happened?"

"He fell on me," Tucker said, "after the ghost _haunting him_ made him hit his head on the roof-" Sam reached over, grabbed his hat, and shoved it into Tucker's mouth.

"I'm fine," Danny said, moving one hand to the back of his neck. "I just tripped."

"Right," Jazz said, and pulled him closer to her side. "Danny, you know you can talk to me about anything- is that my clean laundry on your floor?"

"We're gonna head out," Sam said, pushing Tucker out of the room. "Bye, Danny!"

Tucker spat out his hat, "Order him to leave if you see him again!" He put it back on as Sam pushed him out of view.

.-.

Outside of Fenton Works, Tucker felt Sam squeeze his arm. "Do you see him anywhere?"

Tucker shook his head; Phantom was nowhere in sight. "He probably won't come near us."

"Good point," she released his arm, "you saw how quickly Danny's mood changed around him, right?"

"Yeah." Tucker could faintly recall being twelve years old and trying to roast a marshmallow in Danny's backyard as Jack Fenton rambled about ghosts feasting on emotions. "We need to tell his parents."

"If they cared, do you think that _thing_ would still be there?" Sam said, "Tucker, I'm s-" the word didn't make it out, and she took a deep breath in instead. "I'm the one who pulled him out of the portal. But I'm going to do _everything_ I can to put him back. Can you just make sure Danny's safe for me?"

"I'm his best friend," Tucker pointed out, "I've been doing that."

Sam nodded, "I'm going to head to the Skulk and Lurk, maybe I can find something that actually works there." She pulled out her phone and started to walk down the block.

"Sam," Tucker called, "Danny's not mad at you for going in the portal, you know. He's just scared. He's right; we're all just scared."

Sam didn't look back at him. She just kept walking.

Tucker stayed in front of Danny's house, searching for any sign of Phantom for an hour before calling his mom.

Around the block with a pair of cheap binoculars in hand, Sam stayed for three.

.-.

In a motel now, the two adults watched the teen they'd brought with them from the window as he paced the parking lot and continued his one-sided argument. At least he'd had the sense to pretend to be talking on the phone for once.

"No, just- no, don't you start that with me. I don't want any vague 'it's what has to happen' bull from you." He stopped, and jabbed a finger into the air beside him. "I want an explanation. You didn't want _me_ involved in this, and now you're bringing in random kids?!" A pause, "oh, they're fourteen. Thank you, that is _so_ comforting." He was pacing again. "There are other people you could have found that are more qualified, actually _adults,_ and most importantly, not fourteen!"

His argument continued well into the night.

* * *

 **Part 1: Accident Prone**

 **Complete**

* * *

It took approximately 32k to get to this point in the old version, compared to the roughly 22k this one's taken. That's like 10k of uselessness I've managed to get rid of! Rewrites, my lovelies. They're wild.

So, a bit on the 'parts' of this fic; there will be around seven of them, although they won't all be the same length. I'm writing for plot, not length after all! So most of them will likely be longer, since this was all just the beginning arc and I'm impatient. Future parts- _especially_ Bitter Reunions, which was 55k in old Connections- will be longer.

Well, not 55k. Probably. I have friends that are threatening to fight me if I do that again.

The next arc will be called **Mystery Meat** , and will be amazing. There's a lot to cover, but I'll finally get to add the forth important character in! She'll finally be getting the main character status she deserves.

Next update should be on August 12! Until then, thoughts?


	7. The Next One Over

So: this chapter was a bit hard to do. There's someone who's necessary for later stuff, and as I impatiently decided do, I brought him in as early as I could. I've been hinting at him, so hopefully this works?

(No, it's not Vlad. He's busy right now, but he'll be here later.)

In this chapter, ghost language returns! Also Phantom's sort-of grasp on the English language. I love him.

Onwards!

* * *

 **Chapter 7;** _ **The Next One Over**_

At the beginning of the year, there'd been a scheduling error. Danny hadn't signed up for it, but somehow, he'd been placed in an art class. When he'd asked Jazz who he should talk to about changing it to Home Ec. so he could be with Tucker, she'd launched into a lecture about the 'benefits of new experiences' and how he needed to get out of his comfort zone more.

Over six months later, Danny stared at his blank sketchbook and came to the realization that he didn't have a comfort zone anymore. _It died in the portal. I'm permanently stuck in the uncomfort zone._ He stifled a laugh at his own terrible joke; it'd be the only sound in his completely silent art class. Halfway across the room, Sam's friend Rebecca shot him a glare.

Danny glanced at her from the corner of his eye and sunk down into his chair. He hated the art class; he couldn't draw, all the other students hated him for some reason, and the teacher was never there. He wasn't sure where Ms. Hill went when she was supposed to be teaching, and guessed that he'd never know. Mostly because she was never there to ask.

Danny twirled a pencil between two fingers and stared at the blank page he was supposed to be drawing on. The class was marked by participation even though the teacher was never there to see who was _participating._ It was a waste of time.

Officially giving up, Danny slid his sketchbook into the empty space beside him and pulled out his math homework. He wasn't good at math- other than science, he had to spend hours studying to get his parents' required A in most of his classes- but at least this would be something to do.

On the other side of the classroom, a couple students were talking. For a second, Danny thought he could hear his name and looked over. Automatically, the group went suspiciously silent and a couple looked like they were trying to stifle laughs.

Honestly, Danny wasn't sure why he'd expected anything less.

Holding his pencil so tightly he was almost convinced it'd break in his grasp, Danny turned back to his homework. Things were back to normal, then. No ghost stalkers, no floating, no static, and no green flames. Just classmates who hated him.

 _Ah, sweet normalcy._

A shrill screech rang through the school, and Danny barely caught himself in time to avoid clamping his hands over his ears. The fire alarm continued as the class began to groan, many gathering their things before heading out. Danny was no different, but thrown off by how unbearably _loud_ the fire alarm was- seriously, it had _never_ been that loud before- he was the last to shove his stuff in his bag.

Valerie Grey bumped his desk as she passed. "You're supposed to leave your stuff behind, Fenton," she sneered, and Danny raised an annoyed eyebrow as she left with her bag in hand.

"Whatever," he mumbled, and slung his backpack over one shoulder. His phone vibrated in his pocket as Danny followed the crowd out of the school, trying his best not to let anyone see his attempts to block the noise. Oh, he could hear Dash's voice now- _"What's the matter, Fenton? Is it too loud for you?" -_ and just knew that would end with him getting shoved in a locker.

Danny stepped out of the school and nearly collapsed with relief. For once, he was looking forward to following his classmates over to the field they had to wait for their teacher in. As long as he was away from that awful _noise_ , everything would be okay. He pulled out his phone as he walked; he had a text from an unknown number. ' _Look left',_ it read.

Danny raised an eyebrow, "Okay..." he muttered. To his left would be a field almost the length of school before the football field's bleachers. He looked over anyway, and through the students, something stood out.

There was an older teen- a senior, maybe- standing beside the bleachers. He didn't seem particularly special or important, but Danny couldn't pull his eyes away. He had tan skin, black hair, and teal eyes, along with a thick brown jacket. He was staring at Danny, arms crossed, and looking rather annoyed. As Danny watched, he pointed a thumb over his shoulder and slipped behind the bleachers.

Someone bumped his shoulder and Danny jumped at least a foot in the air. The passing student didn't pay him any attention. The crowd was thinning out; he'd probably be spotted if he tried to run for it. He didn't feel like answering questions about what he was doing-

His phone vibrated again. ' _Get moving, Daniel.'_

Danny scowled and practically launched himself across the length of the school to reach the bleachers. Brown Jacket looked bored as he charged in, out of breath.

"My name," he wheezed, leaning against the bleachers for support as he pointed a furious finger at the older teen's stupid patched jacket, "is _Danny."_

"Sure," Brown Jacket shrugged, "I don't really care. I'm Lewis."

"Great, I _also_ don't care." Danny stepped back, "I don't care how you got my phone number, or who you are, or-"

"How I know about you're currently filtering superior pure quality ectoplasm with your soul?" Lewis said, slipping his hands into his pockets.

"Yeah!" Danny pointed a finger at him, "Exactly! I don't care-" the finger dropped, "my what's doing what now?"

Lewis raised an eyebrow. "You're not very subtle." He took a step closer and looked down at Danny. "Okay kiddo, here's the deal; you have no idea what you're getting into. Stay out of it."

"Yeah, no, not happening." Danny mimicked the older teen, crossing his arms and raising one eyebrow. Lewis scowled at him, and Danny stared him down. _So much for not caring._ "Who are you and why do you have my phone number?"

Lewis shifted and started looking more guarded. "You're fourteen," he said plainly.

"Oh, great, you know my age too, that's not creepy at _all-"_

"You're a literal child," he said. "Listen to me. You _don't_ want to get involved in this. You've got a life to live, friends you can hang out with, homework to worry about- you're still just a kid. This isn't your fight."

"Fourteen isn't a kid!" Danny snapped, "I'm a _teenager,_ get it right! And leave me alone- you don't know me!"

Lewis sighed. "Rather shouty, aren't you? Just think for a second. What's the worst thing that could come from listening to me? You don't die? If you think that's a bad thing, you desperately need therapy."

"Could you stop talking like you're better than me for five seconds?" Danny said, "Dude, I don't know you. You're just some creepy guy with my name and phone number. You made a dumb comment about my soul that didn't make any sense and told me to stay out of some _magical_ event you haven't explained at all. Are you high, or crazy, or what?" It occurred to Danny that he should probably stop talking. Unfortunately, he did not. "Also, your coat's dumb. It's March, why are you wearing something lined with fur?"

"You done yet?" Lewis asked, pulling out a flip phone from his pocket and tapping the keys as it vibrated intensely in his hands.

"No, actually! Why do you have a flip phone? Is it so the nineties can call you and say-"

"There's a storm coming." Danny scowled as Lewis spoke over him, not looking up from the phone. "The sky over the path you're on is particularly dark; if you won't go back inside, then you'd better bring a coat. And be careful of who offers to walk with you; umbrellas attract lightning, you know."

Danny blinked. "Right... weather channel says it's supposed to be sunny for the next two weeks, dude. But hey! You're crazy, that's good to know! I'm going to go back to my class now." He pointed a finger gun with his right hand at Lewis and a thumb behind him with his left. Lewis sighed, and Danny started to back away. From the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something flicker.

Lewis snapped to attention and snatched Danny's hand. He yelped as he was pulled forward and tried frantically to pull himself free. The corner of his eyes flickered again; Danny squeezed his eyes shut for a second in a vain effort to stop his head from pounding.

The headache disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, and Danny watched as a few feet away Flicker pulled a hand away from his hood.

"Creepy," Danny mumbled.

"Stay away from him," Lewis said, and Danny opened his mouth to protest. "Flicker, I swear, if you do anything else to this kid I'll-"

"Whoa, whoa," Danny held up his free hand and pointed at Flicker, "the only thing he did to me was push me down the stairs. Calm down."

Lewis glanced at him. "You're not going to freak out over the fact I can see him?"

"Should I?"

"...Nope." Lewis pulled him closer, and Danny groaned. _This is my life now._ "Not at all. Flicker, don't make me banish you, we both know I will."

There was an uncomfortably long pause before Flicker dragged a hand down the front of his face. And for the first time, he spoke. _"How about we play a game, hm? You like those, don't you? It's called the Calm Down Game. To play, you stop freaking out and calm the heck down."_

Danny shook his head and pressed his free hand over one of his eyes. Flicker's voice- he knew it was Flicker's voice, just knew automatically without a doubt- had appeared in his mind like a thought, and it was so, _so_ wrong. There was something too familiar and _wrong_ about the voice, and it pressed painfully against his skull. He felt like he was going to fall over.

" _And this is why I've been sticking to party tricks with you,"_ Flicker said, sounding either concerned or amused. A moment later, sounding like he was trying not to laugh at a particularly bad joke, he added, _"Don't hurt yourself, Fenton."_

"That's enough," Lewis snapped, finally releasing Danny's hand and grabbing his shoulders instead. "Let me make myself perfectly clear, Flicker- this isn't his fight. He's a little kid."

" _He's fourteen, that's a teenager."_ Flicker said, and Danny smiled. Slowly, he lowered his hands and pushed away from Lewis. _"I was dealing with this crud when I was fourteen."_

"Oh, and you turned out just fine then?" Lewis snapped, and Danny started to inch away. "You're _dead,_ Flicker! You didn't want me to be involved, and I was sixteen when I got dragged into your fight! Leave him out of this. Leave both of them out of this." He sounded like he was pleading.

Danny raised an eyebrow. Flicker looked annoyed. Danny heard nothing, but watched as Lewis actually flinched.

" _Danny,"_ Flicker said kindly as Lewis tried to recover, _"don't you have a class to get back to?"_

Danny nodded. "Yeah, art- I should go-"

"You're tearing the world apart," Lewis muttered, "it isn't worth it. Please, he can't be that important."

Danny was suddenly overcome with the urge to _leave._ He took several quick steps back before rushing around the bleachers, perfectly willing to risk the embarrassment of everyone seeing him as long as he got away from whatever was going on _there-_

The field was empty.

"Um," Danny said, "okay?" They'd never finished a fire drill that quickly before. He stepped back, looking over his shoulder at where Flicker and Lewis were- and only saw more blank space. "Wait. Wait, what? They were just..." he looked over the empty school grounds, "...here. Okay, heh, that's weird." He pulled out his phone to check the time; it wasn't that much later, it wasn't like a chunk of time had disappeared from his memory, but no fire drill was ever this short. Something felt wrong, and hesitantly, Danny brought up his past texts.

The ones Lewis had sent, much like the man himself, were now gone.

Danny's throat felt dry. Pins and needles ran up his back, and he ran back into the school.

He didn't care what had happened out there. He didn't want to know.

Maybe if he said it enough he'd actually believe it.

.-.

Valerie Grey pulled away from the crowd of people trying to force their way through Casper High's too-thin hallways. _Screw this,_ she thought, and sent a short text to her best friend Star. _'I'm going to go out the side door and head around, hallways are hell.'_ With that, she slipped out the door and set a quick pace. It would only take her a couple minutes at the most to get back to where the art class was, and she could hopefully finish her drawing before the next bell rang.

At least, that was the plan.

Valerie jogged past the dumpsters and was only a second away from hopping over the nearby fence separating the parking lot and schoolyard when a quiet noise distracted her. She skid to a stop and turned her head, eyes focused on a twitching bit of fabric behind one of the dumpsters. Once again, she heard a quiet, breathy squeak too much like someone was trying not to cry.

Valerie Grey did not do 'comfort.' When her friends were sad, she gave them food or something soft and left the room. When strangers were sad, she kept walking. So why had she stopped?

While Valerie's mind tried to piece together exactly what she was doing, her feet started to step towards to dumpster. Slowly, she knelt down and pushed the dumpster away from the wall to reveal a child hiding in the gap.

Well, maybe not a _child_ , he couldn't be that much younger than her- a few years, maybe- but the white haired boy who scrambled away from her definitely didn't seem particularly mature. He cowered, trying to hide in his oversized sweater, and mumbled something that made absolutely no sense.

Valerie frowned. Why was a middle schooler having a breakdown behind a high school dumpster? Couldn't they use their own dumpsters for that? "Uh, hey," she nudged him, and the kid tried to make himself smaller. "Hey, buddy, chill. What are you doing back here, anyway? What's wrong?"

Slowly, the boy lowered his hands and gave Valerie a slightly terrified look. He opened his mouth, then snapped it shut and started curling up around himself again.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Valerie said, holding up her hands. "I'm Valerie, who are you?"

He licked his lips and pointed at the wall. Right above him was one of the outer fire alarms.

"It was just a drill," Valerie said, "and if the building was burning, this would be the worst place to hide. _You_ would burn."

He pulled his hand back, "Burren," he muttered, and wrinkled his nose. "Burr- burn. Burn."

Valerie raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, burn."

He nodded. "U qla hyar axlews 'xlyaw ur qla kiys."

Valerie blinked. "Uh, in English please?"

He pulled back. "U'n bir fiis lr 'Engish.'" Again, he wrinkled his nose. "Ang- _eng._ Eng- _lash?_ "

"English," Valerie corrected, and made herself comfortable. "Okay. Uh... do you understand me?" He stared blankly at her. "Right." She pointed at herself, "Val-er-ree. Valerie." She pointed at him, hoping he'd get the message.

He hesitated for several seconds before pointing to his face. "Prince."

"There we go," she smiled, and pulled out her phone. There was a text from Star, which she ignored. Instead, Valerie pointed up the wall. "Fire alarm," she said, and brought up a video of burning building. "Fire," she pointed to the phone, "alarm," she pointed to the wall, "stops," she held up her hand, "burning," she pointed back at the video.

Prince stared at the video of the burning building and clasped his hands over his mouth. "Qla wcwetibw ijlt?"

Valerie shrugged, having absolutely no idea what Prince was saying. The boy nodded and started to play with his sleeves. He looked terrified. She frowned, and reached into her bag. Valerie pulled out a granola bar and held it flat in her hand near Prince's face. "Are you hungry?"

He blinked, and poked the bar's foil wrapper. It crinkled and he snatched his hand back, looking up at Valerie with terrified eyes.

"It's just foil," she said, and when Prince stared blankly at her, she pulled off the wrapper to reveal the snack. "Hungry?" She asked again, rubbing her stomach with her free hand before miming taking a bite of the granola bar.

Prince's face lit up and he nodded enthusiastically. Valerie handed the granola bar back to him, and in one fluid motion he'd shoved it in his mouth. He barely chewed, and Valerie watched in horror.

"That's a yes, huh?" She said, and Prince nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, where are your parents?" She grabbed her phone again and brought up a picture of her and her dad. "Parents," she said again, pointing at the picture, "Dad."

His face fell. Prince shook his head and pulled back, sinking into his sweater. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head more frantically, pulling his hair with both hands.

Valerie's stomach twisted. She nudged Prince gently, and he flinched at her touch. "Do you have a Mom? Or any family?" She asked, hoping he understood.

But once again, Prince shook his head. "No Mom," he said, "no Da- _ad._ Go- _on_."

"Oh." _Poor kid._ He was obviously foreign, probably homeless, and all alone in a world he literally couldn't understand. No wonder he was hiding behind a dumpster. Valerie pointed to herself now, "No Mom," she said, "gone." She reached back into her bag and pulled out an apple, holding it towards Prince. "Hungry?"

Prince nodded and took the apple with both hands. Valerie tried to come up with a plan; she couldn't just leave him, but her dad wouldn't be willing to take in some random kid. Should she call the police? Would they be able to help him? She'd heard far too many horror stories, and didn't want to risk it. None of her friends would open their homes, but Prince was at risk every second he was left in the city alone.

Valerie Grey didn't _do_ comfort, and emotionally connecting with others wasn't her strong point. She didn't know why this kid had caught her attention, or why she couldn't leave him, but as he attempted to shove the entire apple in her mouth she couldn't help but laugh. She wasn't leaving him alone. She _couldn't._

As she sent Star a text telling her not to wait up, she realized the poor kid wasn't even wearing shoes. Just ridiculous, dirty, fuzzy rainbow socks.

Had Valerie turned back, she might have noticed the flickering form of a man in dark fabrics standing behind her. She might have noticed his smile, or she might have noticed the sadness in his eyes as he looked at Prince. But she didn't turn back, and when Prince looked his way he saw nothing unusual at all.

That was the way it had to be, of course.

Flicker ran a hand through his messy black hair before letting it rest on the back of his neck for only a second before his form was gone, and Valerie helped Prince to his feet as she promised to buy him lunch. Too busy devouring the apple, the only replies the ghost could give were nods.

And no one thought anything of it.

* * *

If you look to your left you'll see me, sobbing as I hug Valerie, and screaming about how she'll finally be getting the main character role she deserves. She's trying to punch me. She hates it.

Also, shout out to Danny for using his Protagonist Powers to figure out Prince's name and then getting the _wrong one._ This is why you talk to people instead of relying on your confusing extra-dimensional vaguely-psychic powers, everyone!

And then there's Lewis. Sweet, plot-important Lewis. If you've read the old version you probably remember some of what this guy's going to do. If not, well… he's trustworthy. He's a pretty key character in some stuff that'll be relevant soon. And Flicker, of course, is still entirely innocent and full of good intentions.

Alright, that's all for now! Next update should be on the 26! Until then, thoughts?


	8. Your New Normal

So; slow chapter. Compared to everything that has happened and is going to, this chapter's more of a build-up than anything, but I love it anyway. Valerie's amazing, Prince is precious, and Sam blames ghosts for Danny's inability to read his assignments. It's great.

Onwards!

* * *

 **Chapter 8;** _ **Your New Normal**_

"So, everything's back to normal then?"

Danny took a huge bite of his burger and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess," he said, chewing around each word. Sam glared at him as she leaned back on the picnic table's bench.

The trio was right outside of the Nasty Burger, along with most of their classmates. It wasn't that unusual; it was a Friday, the weather was warm, and they even had Monday off of school. Unlike the last one it should be a perfect, ghost-free weekend.

Tucker, however, didn't look convinced. He too spoke while eating, and Sam leaned farther back. "You haven't seen him at all?"

"I did tell him to stay out, Tuck."

"Of your _house,_ " Tucker said, pointing a fry accusingly at Danny who snatched it and shoved it in his mouth. "Rude!"

"You're both disgusting," Sam said, "could you chew with your mouths closed for like five seconds?"

"Could," Tucker said, and slowly moved his burger towards his lips. "Won't, though." He took a messy bite that left sauce smearing down his chin.

"Ew," Danny replied as he crumpled up a napkin and tossed it at Tucker's face.

"If you two are done being disgusting," Sam deadpanned, leaning against the table as Tucker finished chewing, "Danny, you told him to get out of your house, not our _world._ He could be anywhere!"

"Hey, he's not trying to steal my body, so I don't care." Danny said, raising his hands in surrender before reaching for his shake. "Nothing weird has happened since Tuesday, I can _finally_ go back to focusing on normal stuff. Like our science project-" he pointed at Sam as he brought the drink's straw to his lips, "we need to get that done this weekend. What are you doing tonight?"

Sam stared at him. "The Science Fair's tonight."

Danny choked on his shake and sputtered as Tucker patted his shoulder. "Good job, buddy. What weird thing happened on Tuesday?"

"Not now," Danny muttered, flailing his right arm as he finished nearly dying for the second time in two weeks. "What do you mean it's _tonight?!_ We haven't even started!" He tried to set his shake down, missed the table, and spilled it across his lap. Danny scrambled off the bench, nearly swearing. "Oh, come on!"

"No, you've just been busy with ghost stuff," Sam said, grabbing some napkins and making her way over to Danny's side. Danny was _very_ aware of how many of his classmates were staring at him now, and clenched his fists. "I finished it last week. All you have to do is show up and read my notes." She tossed some to Tucker and started wiping Danny's shake off his pants. "I _was_ going to ask if you wanted to start looking them over now, but you should probably go home and change."

"Do you need a ride?" Tucker asked, holding out his napkins towards Danny. "My Mom's out running errands, she can probably be here in a few minutes."

Faintly, Danny heard, "Looks like Fenton missed his mouth." He looked up for a second to see Sam's other friends sitting near a group of snickering sophomores. Rebecca looked like she was plotting his murder- which, to be fair, was he normal expression- and Mia gave a slightly threatening wave when she caught his eye.

"Uh..." Danny shook his head and snatched Tucker's napkins. Sam had already gotten most of the milkshake off, and had stood back up. "No, I'll walk. It's ten minutes, I'll be fine." He stepped back, looking past his friends again. Mia was holding her phone up and had it pointed at him. Sam hadn't noticed. Danny scowled and turned to leave. "I'll meet you at the school!"

.-.

"'I... am Sam, Sam I am?'" Prince frowned, looking up from the book Valerie had given him. "Sam," he repeated, looking a bit annoyed.

Valerie nodded, and pointed to the character. "Yep, Sam."

Prince wrinkled his nose and held out a hand. "Owb," he said.

"Marker?" Valerie said, holding up a sharpie and waiting for Prince to nod. She passed it over to the boy, who popped off the cap and doodled a boot whacking the character in the face.

Valerie didn't question it. She'd spent all her free time over the last few days looking after this little homeless boy, and she was mostly used to his shenanigans. She'd moved him closer to the forest behind the football supply shed, helped him set up a shelter, bought him a pair of nice black converse as well as a few changes of socks and underwear, and had been bringing him food every chance she got. It wasn't much, but Prince needed _someone_ and she was doing everything she could.

Today, she'd brought him her favourite book as a child- _Green Eggs and Ham_ by Dr. Seuss- to see how much he could decipher. As it turned out, despite Prince's claims about how horrible he was at English, he was a fast learner. Valerie had read the book to him, helped him with the sounds of a few letters, and left the book with him when she visited on her lunch break. In those few hours alone, Prince had translated a good fifth of the words to his language and nearly figured out how to pronounce most of the rest.

Prince handed her the sharpie back, and Valerie handed him an apple slice from the bag she'd brought. He barely chewed it. He barely ever chewed his food properly.

Valerie rolled her eyes, "You're going to choke one of these days."

Prince stuck out his tongue and looked back down at the book. Valerie wondered how much of her joke he'd been able to clearly understand; he knew 'choke' and 'day,' and but he struggled with numbers. He'd be missing most of the context. "'That... Sam-I-am, that Sam-I-am, I... ha- _ate-_ '"

"Hate," Valerie said, and pulled up a picture on her phone of two people arguing. This was a new word. She pointed to them both in turn, "Boy hate girl."

Prince looked confused. "Why?"

Valerie barely kept a frown off her face. She almost regretted teaching him that word. "Uh... girl lies."

"Lays?" Prince asked, putting his hands by his head and miming falling to sleep.

"No, lies." Valerie hesitated, trying to figure out how to define it as Prince stared at her with his wide green eyes. Valerie flipped a couple pages in the book and pointed to a creature. "Mouse," she said, then pointed to herself. "Mouse."

Prince raised an eyebrow and pointed too. "Val _er_ ie," he said.

"Mouse," she said, shaking her head.

"Val _er_ ie. Human!" He scrunched up his face, and pointed more harshly this time.

Valerie relented. "Yes," she said, and motioned to herself. "No mouse. Lie."

Prince wrinkled his nose, frowned, and started to look a bit uncomfortable. "Why lie?" He asked.

"Uh... hm," Valerie frowned, and Prince stared at her with his wide eyes. How could she phrase this in a way he'd understand? "To... teach. Or protect."

"Protect," Prince mimicked, rubbing the fabric of one of his sleeves between a forefinger and thumb. "Val _er_ ie," he pointed to himself, " _no_ human. Sack- _sa-_ u fir auxj, u'n bir gynlb."

Valerie frowned, "Sick?" She offered, and pretended to cough. Prince pulled back and nodded. "You're... sick, so you're not human?" Prince awkwardly nodded some more, and Valerie frowned. "Who told you that?"

It took a bit for the message to get across, but when it did, Prince just looked confused. "Dad?"

Valerie was not typically one to avoid expressing her emotions, something her friends knew all to well. So she was honestly surprised with how calmly she said, "Your Dad said you weren't human because you were _sick?"_

Prince looked confused, but understood enough to nod.

Valerie nodded back, trying to keep everything carefully contained. She'd seen how Prince flinched if she raised her voice or moved too fast, but hadn't thought anything of it. Those kinds of things didn't happen in Amity Park.

Of course, neither did finding random homeless foreign kids with 'gone' parents. She should have guessed there'd be more to the story than that. Now all that left was to find the _asshole_ who'd looked at his mentally-ill son and convinced the poor thing that he wasn't even _human-_

"Val _er_ ie?" Prince nudged her with the book. He pointed at himself, looking at her with his wide green eyes. "Hate?"

"Oh, no! No, no, of course not!" She forced a smile. "I could never-" her phone sprung to life in her hand, playing the familiar chorus to Dumpty Humpty's _Throw-Away Princess._ Prince yelped and covered his ears as Valerie answered her phone.

"Where the hell are you?" Rebecca Blackwaters snapped before Valerie could get a word in. "We _agreed_ to meet here five minutes ago! You already dumped most of the work on me, I swear if I have to present it too-"

"Shit, I'm sorry, I- _shit-"_ she pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at Prince. "Don't repeat that."

He gave her a thumbs up.

"Who are you talking to?" Rebecca asked, and Valerie focused back on the call, "Are you babysitting? Valerie, what the hell, we had an _agreement-_ "

"Rebecca, calm the hell down, I'm not even late." She looked back at Prince, who looked a bit annoyed with how little he could understand. "I'll be there in five minutes, just chill." She didn't wait for a reply and hung up her phone.

"Going home?" Prince asked. He looked genuinely upset. Valerie made a mental note to bring him some candy later.

"School," she corrected, and Prince frowned. "Homework." Valerie _really_ didn't feel like explaining 'group projects, the literal worst thing ever created' to him. "I'll be back later." She set down her bag of apple slices, gathered her things, and left the shelter without looking back.

If she had, she might have seen how Prince suddenly flinched and grabbed his left shoulder.

.-.

"Mom? Dad?" Danny called as he stepped into the kitchen, "Hello?" The lab door was open, and Danny rolled his eyes at the sight. "Mom!" He called again once he reached the doorway, "Where are you?" His parents _should_ be home, and he really didn't feel like walking to school.

For a second, Danny weighed his options. Walk to the twenty minutes to his school and avoid the lab, or get a ride and risk having to look at the creepy portal. If he got there early he could look over Sam's notes, but did he really want to chance his parents deciding they wanted to stick around?

In the end, Danny decided to take the risk. His parents had barely left the basement during the past two weeks, anyway. Why would they stay for this stupid science thing?

Unfortunately for Danny's perfectly sound logic, the lab was empty.

"Please tell me they're not in their dungeon," Danny muttered, eyeing the 'closet' beside the lab's bathroom. There was a secret door at the back that Jazz had ordered him to pretend he didn't know about when he found it at age ten. Four years later, and Danny still had no idea why his parents needed a second basement filled with a bunch of old torture devices. Or why his parents could have a secret door, but his younger self hadn't been allowed a murphy bed that looked like a spaceship when it was folded up.

It was possible that he was still slightly angry about that, and really wanted that bed.

Danny stood at the base of the stairs, actually considering checking the creepy second basement when something caught his eye. Sitting on the counter by the portal was a little container of mints.

Danny gave the lab another look over before inching towards the mints. His mom always had some on hand when she was working through the night, so she had to be around here somewhere. He scooped the box up and tossed it from hand to hand before he even attempted to open it.

Beside him, the portal buzzed. Danny looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. The box popped open. "What do you want?"

The portal continued to buzz. The fans in the ceiling above were starting to give him a headache. Danny shook his head and tossed a mint into his mouth.

" _Yeah,_ no, I'm getting away from you now," he drawled, and pointed a finger gun at it before he tossed another mint into the air. He caught it in his mouth, shifting both mints so that they were under his tongue. "You might spit another ghost at me." He spun on his heel and tossed another mint into the air.

It bounced off his nose, and the portal started to _scream._

A tremor shook the lab and Danny hit the ground. He landed roughly on his left shoulder and choked on the mints. The portal continued to scream as Danny coughed out a long stream of freezing air.

His heart pounded as Danny looked back at the portal just in time to see a bent, bright green stick poke out of the portal, and then another a second later- and Danny screamed, hiding his face as he flattened himself on the ground when a buzzing, flaming shape shot out of the portal.

The lights flickered, the fans stopped, and the portal dropped to a quiet hum. The tremors had ended and the ghost was gone. It had disappeared through the roof, leaving only embers falling from where it had phased through.

Danny rolled onto his back and stared up at the roof. His left shoulder throbbed, but the pain didn't fully register. "Oh," he said softly, "okay," he pointed at the roof, "looks like the fly's back. Neato. That's nice. I'm- I'm just gonna-"

He rolled back over and let out a short scream.

* * *

If you're confused about the fly, try rereading the first chapter. I like to think I'm clever. ;)

Also, fun fact; that song Valerie mentioned as being her ring tone? I wrote the lyrics for it. Literally, I wrote the line and then decided I needed to write the song. I'm good at things. I miiight post it on tumblr later… maybe. Possibly.

Ghost language translations from the last chapter!

He nodded. "I was just scared 'cause it was loud."

He pulled back. "I'm not good at [Engish]." Again, he wrinkled his nose. "Ang- _eng._ Eng- _lash?_ "

Prince stared at the video of the burning building and clasped his hands over his mouth. "Was everyone okay?"

*Gently pats Prince* My beautiful baby boy. My sweet, small, apple-loving boy. The purest boy. He has never done a single thing wrong in the history of ever and I love him. Also, I love writing his attempts at English. The poor boy is trying so hard.

Next guaranteed update is September 9th! Until then, thoughts?


	9. Fairly Odd Science

*Jazz hands intensely* why is it that every three chapters there's a really good one? Did I invoke an ancient curse? I probably invoked an ancient curse. I'm a Psychology major with a passion for history, that sounds like something I'd do.

Onwards!

* * *

 **Chapter 9;** _ **Fairly Odd Science**_

Danny had no idea what he was doing.

Was he following a gut feeling? Was he tracking the ghost fly? Was he just running around Amity Park like an idiot? The answer to all of those, but mostly the latter, was probably yes. Unfortunately, Danny was still beyond confused. On a related note, he was also crouched behind his school's dumpster.

"C'mon, fly," he muttered, "you like garbage, right? There's lots right here, actual garbage and garbage _people_ so come on, come on..." it occurred to Danny that he had no idea what he was going to do if he saw the ghost again. Swat it, maybe? _With what?_ He looked around for a newspaper, or a conveniently placed stick, or _something._

Danny choked, and more freezing air clawed its way out of his throat. "What was in those mints?!" A steadily growing buzzing sound made itself known, and Danny wheezed. "This doesn't even make any sense!"

The fly landed on top of a dumpster, and now that it was no longer on fire, Danny could see it clearly. It was _huge._ The fly was nearly the size of his parents' RV, and Danny stared blankly at it for a second as he couldn't help imagining hitting it with said vehicle. Then, he imagined doing the same to Phantom, and slapped himself across the face so he could stop feeling bad.

Danny was distracted from his distraction when the fly buzzed again. He was still crouched behind the dumpster, and it hadn't noticed him yet. He had his chance. All he had to do was find something that could swat it or-

He wasn't touching the ground anymore.

Danny yelped and frantically clung to the dumpster to stop himself from flying away. The fly turned his way, and Danny's heart hammered in his chest as his grip slipped. His legs started to float up, and Danny had the thought that he was about to perform the world's worst handstand. The fly landed beside him, and Danny could see his reflections in the plates of its bulging eyes.

Phantom fell from the sky, screaming, and crashed into the fly with his fist outstretched. Danny's own hands stung as he flinched, and he reflexively pulled them away from the dumpster.

It was Danny's turn to scream now, and he flailed as he tried desperately to grab _something._ His foot hit the edge of the roof and he spun, still floating upwards, still screaming, and twirling head over heels.

Phantom's arms wrapped around his right leg and Danny screamed again. "Sorry, sorry!" The ghost shouted as Danny flailed, trying to grab onto him. "I got you, it's okay, I'm sorry!"

Danny looked up at the ghost, then down at the ground. "Oh, no. No no no no _nope-"_ he screamed and continued to flail, "put me down, put me down!"

"Quit it!" Phantom shouted as Danny nearly kicked him in the face. He reached back and grabbed the ghost's ankle, and screamed when his legs morphed together. His right hand was stuck in the spectral tail. "I'm just trying to-" an unfortunately familiar light cut him off.

For a moment, their shared form floated in place before it was sent crashing onto the school roof. Another flash of light separated them, and Danny grabbed his already injured left shoulder. He glared at Phantom as both the boys sat up. "Gee, thanks."

Phantom glared back, pulling his upper lip back to reveal the fangs. Danny scrunched up his face to mock him. "You're the one who ordered me not to control that stupid body-thing, it's not my fault you don't know how to fly."

"You kept trying to steal my body!"

"Yeah- well-" Phantom jabbed a finger at Danny's face, "you were probably the reason I didn't have one in the first place! I was just trying to find a way home, _you_ got me stuck following you!"

Danny swatted his hand away. "What's that supposed to mean? You don't even have a home, you're dead!"

Phantom narrowed his eyes and sat up a little straighter. "I can see why nobody likes you," he stood up and ignored Danny's protest. "I'm going to go stop that bug before it hurts someone. I don't care what you do." He walked over to the edge of the roof and hopped off.

Danny stayed still for a second, anger and guilt twisting in his gut, before he crawled to the edge. Phantom had reached the ground several feet below just fine and was calmly walking away. "Wait!" Danny shouted, "How do I get down?"

"Not my problem!" Phantom called back as he turned a corner.

"You're the one who put me up here!" Phantom didn't reply, and Danny glared after him. After several long moments he flopped onto his side and rolled away from the edge. He ran his hands down his face and let out a long sigh. _This can't still be happening._

Lying facedown the ground below, his phone vibrated intensely.

.-.

Sam shoved her phone back into her pocket and looked to her left. Tucker watched her do so, and pulled out his own phone. After a moment, Sam could faintly hear Danny's voicemail on the other end.

"It's Tucker," he said, "if you don't answer your phone I'm going to call your sister." He hung up and looked at Sam. "He's probably still at home."

The two stood in the school gymnasium, leaning against the desk Sam had set up her poster on. To their left, Mikey was driving the little robot he and Tucker had built in circles. To their right, Rebecca stood at attention in front of the maze she'd built for her pet rat, Azalea. Her partner, Valerie, was playing on her phone. Scattered across the gym, most students were in various similar situations. Mia was typing quickly on a laptop with a lava lamp beside her. Dash and Kwan had been tossing a football and had nearly knocked over Nathan's volcano, but Star had snatched it out of the air before it could go near her and Paulina's project on lipstick shades. She was currently refusing to give it back. A few teachers stood uncaringly by the doors, watching the minor chaos that was starting to unfold and doing nothing to stop it.

Sam stopped focusing on her classmates and turned back to Tucker. "How do we know Phantom didn't come after him?" She whispered, "We shouldn't have left him alone. We need to find him."

Tucker frowned. "I know," he whispered, and Sam faintly registered a few people she didn't know pass by the teachers. They were probably someone's family. "But Mikey needs me here to explain the code for Lil Grabby."

Sam stared at him. "The robot's name is _what?_ "

Mikey looked up and directed the remote-control car and tin can abomination towards them. "His name is Lil Grabby," he said, in his annoying nasally voice as he adjusted his glasses. Sam's unimpressed eyebrow raised a little higher. "See, Tucker wrote the code and I put the hydraulics together so that-"

"He picks up dropped objects for you?"

The three looked over to see an older teen in a patched, fur-lined brown jacket standing in front of them. Mikey and Tucker exchanged a look with each other and their robot. "Uh, yeah," Mikey replied, adjusting his glasses again. "It, uh-"

"It catches anything dropped near it and shoots it back up," Tucker supplied, and Mikey nodded.

After a moment of silence, the older teen shrugged. "Neat. Good job. It's arguably the best thing I've seen so far."

Rebecca turned her head slightly and gave the boys a dirty look. Brown Jacket paid her no attention.

Tucker stepped forward as Mikey piloted the robot behind them. "Are you interested in robotics?"

"I'm interested in lots of things," he said dismissively. He turned to Sam's project and gave her poster a glance over. "Oh, that definitely looks like a passing grade."

Sam narrowed her eyes. "Is that supposed to be sarcastic?"

"Defensive, cool." He gave her a thumb up. "There's nothing sarcastic about a passing grade."

"Hey," Rebecca spoke up, and stepped closer to Sam's side. "Move along, buddy. If you're going to be rude, do it somewhere else."

"Does it really count as rude if I'm always like this?" Sam scowled at his _idiotic_ question, and across the gym a pair of adults had started to weave their way over.

"I'd say it does, yes." Rebecca said firmly, "Move along now. You aren't wanted."

The adults- a brown skinned man and an Asian woman- casually grabbed the older teen by his shoulders and pulled him back. "Lewis, were you being rude?" The man asked.

"Yes," Rebecca crossed her arms, "he most certainly was."

Lewis pushed them off, "I called her project 'a passing grade,' that's a compliment!"

Valerie snickered.

"See?" Lewis motioned to Valerie before turning her way, "Someone's on my si-" he stopped mid-word and stared at Valerie in frozen horror. For a moment, the younger teens all stared at him as the adults reached for his shoulders again. And then his face split into a smile. "Liar, _liar,_ angry little girl for hire." He said in sing-song, "Running around all dressed in red, fighting the storm clouds and the dead. Tell me child, where's the fire? Whose fault is it that this situation is oh _so_ dire?" He suddenly shuddered and shook his head.

"Did, uh, did he just unironically say a cryptic rhyme?" Mikey whispered. Tucker nodded. _"Why?"_

Valerie stared at him. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

The man and woman grabbed Lewis by his arms and started to pull him back. "Excellent work, kids!" The man said, "I'm sure you'll all pass!"

"Love the poster and the rat!" The woman added on as they dragged Lewis towards one of the doors. He kept shaking.

"Is there something wrong with him?" Rebecca asked, and Sam shrugged. She just wanted him _gone._

"It's not my fault," Lewis' voice was barely audible. A couple teachers turned his way, but stayed in place. "He's got the worst timing. Thanks-" Lewis' voice cut to static.

Sam went rigid and gave Tucker a panicked look. His eyes were wide; he'd heard it too.

"Rebecca, could you watch my stuff?" Sam asked, and without waiting for an answer grabbed Tucker by his wrist and yanked him across the gym- _away_ from Lewis- and out the doors.

"He just talked in fucking _static,_ " Tucker whisper-screamed, and Sam grabbed his wrist tighter.

"It's Phantom, it has to be," she replied, her heart pounding in her chest. Faintly, Sam could hear buzzing. "Who else do we know that's got a static-theme and could do that?"

Tucker frowned, "And Danny's missing."

 _I did this. I let him out._ "Call his sister," Sam said, "we need to find him, _now._ " The buzzing grew louder.

Tucker scratched at his ear, "What is that?"

There was something else with the buzzing, and Sam shook her head. "Does that matter? We need to find Danny!"

A bright green something shot down the hall and into the roof, dislodging Phantom and sending him crashing to the ground. He bounced twice, right past Sam and Tucker before tumbling through the air and the open doors of the gym. A second passed before people started to scream.

Tucker pointed at where Phantom was currently getting swarmed by teachers and, for some reason, Valerie. "Is that close enough?"

.-.

Danny was almost convinced that he was going to live on his school's roof now.

Between phantom pains- a name that fit because while he didn't know where the were coming from, Danny was _positive_ they were Phantom's fault- and the fact his hands had flat-out disappeared from existence at one point, he hadn't had much time to look for a way down. And of course, nobody had noticed he was trapped up there, let alone walked by the dumpsters.

Danny rubbed his eyes and started to try sitting up again. When he did, there was an outstretched hand in his face.

Flicker stood there, holding out his left hand, his edges glitching every few seconds. His face was still hidden by his hood, and Danny came to the realization that he would probably never see this guy's actual face. _Why show your face when you can be annoyingly dramatic?_

Still, he looked between the outstretched hand and Flicker's 'eyes.' "Are you going to push me off the roof now?"

Flicker shrugged, and shoved his hand in Danny's face.

"Yeah, no, I'll pass," Danny said, and swatted Flicker's hand away. At once, the world around him changed. Danny was no longer lying on the roof, instead he was standing in a familiar place filled with curling, thick fog.

It took a moment, but as Danny realized where he was one thought crossed his mind. _Oh my God he actually pushed me off the roof._

Beside him, Flicker was suddenly there. Danny wondered why he hadn't been startled, and then remembered that this dead dimension-thing didn't allow emotions. Flicker stepped past Danny and motioned for him to follow. Danny, having no other options, did.

"Am I dead?" He asked, and Flicker gave a vague hand wiggle. "Okay that? That right there? It doesn't help. I know you can use your spooky thought voice, so let's stick with that, okay?"

Flicker stopped walking and gave him a bored look. Danny wondered how he could figure that out since, of course, the guy's face was basically the void. _"You're a lot more annoying than I expected."_

"I'm at least seventy percent sure you just killed me, probably for the second time. I have every right to be."

" _Why would I kill you?"_ Flicker asked, _"This is all out of necessity. You need to stay alive, for now."_

"For now? Are you going to kill me after you're done?" Danny made a mental note to be terrified about that once he got his feelings back. Flicker held out a hand in front of him and the fog around them started to shift to static. "Hey, I'm trying to hold a conversation here!"

A sharp, loud noise cut through the fog and Danny clapped his hands over his ears. For a second, he felt everything- _everything, Powers Above, no, she's c-_ and then static morphed the fog around him into a scene. Danny found himself standing behind the bleachers in his school's football field, Flicker a step ahead of him. His form was staticy and translucent, and he was barely moving. Facing him was that brown-jacketed weirdo with a flip phone, Lewis. He shoved what looked like a dog whistle on a chain back under his shirt.

" _Sup?"_ Flicker said, and pointed a finger gun at Lewis.

Lewis stared at him. "They're _fourteen."_

" _Wow, really? I never knew that."_ Flicker said lazily, and Danny flinched. He wondered if it was a good or a bad thing that Flicker's stupid mind-voice was starting to give him a headache. _"I'm starting to doubt your ability to do basic math. Not that I have any right to judge something like that, Powers Above know I suck at math, but how many times do you need to say that number? Is counting really that hard for you?"_

Lewis looked like he was about to take a swing at Flicker. Danny took a step back, in case doing so dragged him into the fog too.

"They can't be that important!" Lewis whisper-shouted, and Danny caught sight of two adults poking their heads around the bleachers. "Look, there's a literal family line of _Fentons_ here, and there's even two adults! If you need someone so badly, why not them?"

 _Leave my parents out of this,_ Danny said, and frowned. _Why can't I say that out loud?_ His mouth was moving, he _felt_ like he was talking, but his words could only be a thought at best. _Flicker, what did you do?!_

" _You might actually be getting worse at context clues,"_ Flicker replied. _"Did you initiate this just to yell at me?"_

Lewis took a deep breath in. "I came to bargain."

" _Really?"_ Flicker crossed his arms and shifted his weight lazily, looking over the older and taller teen. _"And yet you start with yelling at me. You're so,_ _ **so**_ _good at this Lewis Nonexistent-middle-name James."_

Lewis narrowed his eyes for a second before taking another breath in. "If you tell me more about The Storm, I'll let you use my body for four hours."

 _The Storm?_ Danny frowned, _wow, I'm sick of this already. Wasn't he talking about a storm coming before? What is even happening right now?!_

Flicker was definitely grinning. He uncrossed his arms and looked thoughtful. _"Twelve hours."_

"Six."

" _Nope, twelve, or I'll hop back into the Unworld and stop coming when I'm called."_ His grin seemed like it should be worrying, and probably would be, once Danny was back in a place that allowed emotions. _"I can do that, you know. I just find messing with you a lot of fun."_

Lewis gritted his teeth, and after a tense second, held out his right hand. "Deal."

Flicker held out his left, and Lewis shook the back of his hand. Danny raised an eyebrow and _almost_ tried to make a sarcastic remark, but decided against it. It wouldn't be as satisfying if no one could hear him.

Danny shook his head and focused back on the horrible handshake. In seconds, he was moving back towards them. Something was wrong. Tendrils of static were wrapping around Lewis' arm, and he seemed frozen. A whispering echoed around them. It wasn't Flicker's voice that Danny heard this time, but he couldn't make out the words. They echoed and slurred together, leaving Danny just with sounds that made no sense.

And then, he wasn't in the static's version of the grass behind the bleachers anymore. He was standing on the deck of the Ops Center, looking up, and the sky was _green._ Cold air clawed its way out of his mouth, and Danny coughed. Above him, bright red fog curled through the air and started to form a face. The details weren't quite defined, but Danny saw absolute-white skin, an eyepatch, and a thick black scar over the other eye.

Still choking, Danny looked to his right. There was a man beside him, nearly six and a half feet tall and significantly more muscular than Danny could ever hope to be. But his face and hair was far too close to Danny's own, and as he put his hands on his hips, Danny saw an expression cross his face that was far too familiar.

"Huh," he reached over to pull Danny closer to him, and fixed the sky with the same look Jack Fenton pulled whenever he was trying to fix a particularly finicky invention. "That's a bit early."

Danny opened his mouth to reply, and suddenly he was back on the school roof. His head felt like he'd just smashed it on the sidewalk. "What the _heck_ was that?!" _Hey, I can speak again. That's cool. It'd probably be better if I didn't feel like I'd just got in a fight with a train and lost, but hey!_ "Not dead!" _Everything hurts!_

Danny saw at least three of everything in front of him, but he sat up anyway. Several questions ran through his mind, each making him more confused than the last. _Why was the sky green? Why was there fog up there? Does it have anything to do with Flicker's fog? What is that place, anyway? He said 'Unworld,' is that even a thing? And who was that guy? Why did he look like me? Was he me? Do I get that tall? Do I get muscles? If he was me, the who's eyes were I looking out of? How does that have anything to do with the storm Lewis was talking about? Was that guy in the sky the storm? Why did Flicker want to use his body?!_

Any further questions were cut off as the fly shot through the roof.

Danny scrambled to his feet as the bug landed near him, heart pounding and pain forgotten. He took a step back as it stared him down, and his heel landed halfway off the edge.

Time seemed to move in slow motion, and Danny saw two paths. He could jump off the roof to try to run and find help, or he could deal with the bug himself. He'd get hurt either way, but maybe he could make sure nobody else did.

The fact he didn't know what he was doing wasn't even considered, and for the second time in as many weeks, he did something that was both incredibly brave and incredibly stupid.

Danny lunged forwards and punched the fly in one of its giant eyes.

And a fraction of a world away, Flicker stood surrounded by static and fog. His hood was down as he smiled and gave a slow, satisfied clap.

"It's working," he said, speaking only to himself. "It's actually working!"

* * *

I unironically love this, so: Flicker is entirely innocent and good. He has only the best intentions and has certainly never killed a man. I'm not being sarcastic, what are you talking about?

Ghost language translations!

Prince wrinkled his nose and held out a hand. "Pen," he said.

"Protect," Prince mimicked, rubbing the fabric of one of his sleeves between a forefinger and thumb. "Val _er_ ie," he pointed to himself, " _no_ human. Sack- _sa-_ I got sick, I'm not human."

See y'all on September 23 for Baby's First Ghost Fight! Until then, thoughts?


	10. Group Work

Ah, the update schedule. Well, that was fun while it lasted! I just spent a week debating on what chapter to put the first scene of the next chapter in, because I apparently can't be trusted with anything! And then my computer threw a tantrum, and now I can't edit anything saved in microsoft word! God, I love technology.

Onwards!

* * *

 **Chapter 10;** ** _Group Work_**

There were some advantages and disadvantages to Danny's plan. Some disadvantages would be the fact he didn't understand ghosts, flies weren't exactly known for being easy to kill, and that he currently felt half-dead.

An advantage would be the fact Danny was pretty sure that punching a fly in the face would be the coolest thing he ever did.

He hadn't planned for the aftermath, however, and found himself in front of the fly, his left arm elbow-deep in its eye.

"Ew," Danny said, "okay, bad plan, definitely had some holes. Much like your eye, yeah. Yeah." He looked up at the fly's face, and the fly stared at his. "Um... what's up?"

The fly continued to stare at him. Danny pointed a finger gun at it. The fly spread its wings and shot back into the air.

"Whoa, hey! Hey!" Danny's voice cracked, and he flailed wildly as the fly dragged him farther up. "Put me down, put me down, put me the _heck-_ " he broke off into frantic screams and punched the fly's other eye. After everything, part of him was surprised when that didn't result in another visit from Flicker.

Danny didn't look down, but the wind whipping in his face and the freezing air that left him breathless told him all he needed to know. He tried to punch the fly with his right fist, but the bug darted forwards and Danny was left screaming as something in his shoulder pulled much too far. Pins and needles dug into his body, and his left palm felt cold.

Just like he had earlier in the week, Danny fired an ectoblast. The fly was flung off his arm, and he was launched back. The pins and needles were back with a vengeance, and a shockwave ran up his arm. He screamed-

And then he was falling.

Danny closed his eyes and braced for an impact that would _absolutely_ kill him, curling up on himself and hoping it at least would be quick.

A minute later, and a few seconds after the wind had stopped blasting him, Danny opened one eye to see the grass below, not rushing towards him, just staying in place roughly a foot below him. He was floating again.

"Oh. O-okay, yep, this is a good thing. Very good, yep." He flailed and tried to move himself closer to the ground, "I got pretty morbid there for a second but alright, okay, this is cool." Laughing uncomfortably in hope that it would bury the rest of his remaining fear, Danny grabbed handfuls of grass and tried to pull himself down. He'd ended up barely a yard away from the football team's storage shed, and just on the outskirts of the forest behind it.

Danny pulled himself to the ground and let out a wheezing laugh, lying facedown in the grass. "Alright. Okay. I'm alive." He rolled onto his back and laid there, just breathing and feeling the grass on his skin. "I'm alive." He closed his eyes, took a deep breath in, and a stream of freezing air poured out of his mouth. "Gosh darn it."

He could rest later. Right now, he had something much more important to worry about. Danny moved to his feet just in time to see the fly, ectoplasm dripping behind it, land on the school roof.

"Absolutely not," Danny hissed, and took off running.

.-.

Phantom had been grabbed and pulled away by several teachers, and Sam and Tucker had followed automatically. These were normal humans, they had reasoned, he could seriously injure them! We, at least, know a bit about him!

But Phantom hadn't done _anything._

Mr. Lancer, the Vice Principal, had pulled him into his office and sat the ghost down on a chair. Phantom hadn't said a word. He just sat there, holding onto the arms of his chair with his knees curled close to his chest, and stared at everyone with wide eyes. Sam and Tucker knew this, because they were currently crouched in the bushes outside of Lancer's window, listening in through a crack and peering in whenever they could.

Currently, Lancer sat across from the ghost boy. "I can't help you unless you talk to me."

Phantom said nothing, but tried to make himself smaller when Lancer reached out near him to grab a travel mug.

Lancer sighed before taking a long drink and looked towards the door. Principal Ishiyama stood there, with the PE and Health teacher, Ms. Tetslaff, at her side. "Do we know when Penny's getting here?"

"Her assistant said they were stuck in traffic; something about the Fentons taking up half the road." Ishiyama said, "It could be a while."

"Can we call child services _now?_ " Tetslaff asked, "Let them deal with the kid if he won't talk to us."

"We should let Penny make that call," Ishiyama replied, and Tucker saw her give both teachers a pointed look. "He's not one of ours."

Lancer sighed, and turned back to Phantom. He stood and the ghost curled up tighter. Lancer stopped, and said, "We're not going to hurt you."

There were three sharp knocks on the room's door, and Sam pulled Tucker out of view. Everything from the inside of the room was muffled until Sam released her grip, and the two slowly rose back into view.

Ms. Spectra, the guidance counselor, and her assistant who nobody cared to remember the name of, had entered the room. "Well hi there, kiddo!" She said, leaning in overly close to Phantom, who automatically leaned away. "What's your name?"

Phantom leaned back even farther and fell out of the chair.

"Oh, sweetheart, don't be like that!" She reached down and grabbed his sleeves to pull him up. Phantom flinched away, but Spectra placed her hands firmly on his shoulders. "Now, I didn't introduce myself first, and that was rude. I'm Penelope Spectra, but you can call me Penny!" She tapped him gently on the nose, and Phantom scrunched up his face in reply. "What's your name?"

Phantom raised a hand to touch his nose and looked absolutely lost.

"Why isn't he doing anything?" Sam whispered, "Mia would've punched _someone_ by now, and she's not a supernatural creature bent on destruction."

"Are you sure?" Tucker asked, and lost his balance when Sam's fist shot out and caught his arm.

"Talk about her like that again and next time I'll hit your fucking face," she hissed, and turned back to the window. Tucker dusted himself off and gave her a half-hearted glare. He didn't have time for this.

"I'm going to find Danny," he said.

.-.

 _No no no no-_ the fly had phased into the school, and Danny hadn't seen where it went. The science fair had to have started by now, so Sam and Tucker- or _worse,_ his fifty-two classmates and everyone else who knew nothing about ghosts- would all be inside. They'd all be in danger. He had to get to the office, he needed to get on the intercom and let everyone know they needed to get out- or _something-_

He turned a corner at full speed and ran face-first into Valerie Grey.

She caught herself on the wall and kept her balance, while Danny hit the ground hard at her feet. "What the hell was that for?!"

"Valerie," Danny wheezed, "oh God, okay- people like you. You have to help me."

Valerie took a step back. Danny struggled to his feet, suddenly aware of the fact his left arm was covered in loose ectoplasm and that at some point his nose had started bleeding. He definitely looked terrible.

"What _happened_ to you?!" Valerie asked, pulling back in disgust.

"No time- there's no time!" Danny panted, "We need to get everyone out! My parents- I promise, I know how crazy this sounds- but they were right and ghosts are real and we need to get _everyone_ out!" He took a deep breath in, leaning against the wall for support. He couldn't quite catch his breath. His heart was pounding. He couldn't stop thinking about the fly landing in the middle of the gym and setting it ablaze with everyone inside.

Valerie took another step back. "You're crazy."

"You don't believe me." _Of course she doesn't believe you, Fenton, you idiot! Why would anyone believe that?!_ "Valerie, please, I promise I'm not trying to-" he choked out more freezing air. Valerie took several more steps back. "Oh, no, c'mon..." He slid his hand along the wall and bumped into the fire alarm.

"I'm calling you an ambulance. There's something seriously wrong with you." Valerie said. She didn't take her eyes off him as she pulled out her phone.

"Fair enough," Danny muttered, and broke the glass around the fire alarm with his right hand.

.-.

The fire alarm went off before Tucker could leave. Sam, still staring into the window, saw Phantom throw his hands over his ears and drop back to the floor. Ishiyama and Tetslaff ran out of the room, and Lancer grabbed the door. Spectra and her assistant reached down to grab Phantom again. Before their hands could touch him, Phantom ducked and rolled closer to the window.

"Sorry," he said in perfect English, and shattered the window with his fist.

Sam and Tucker ducked out of the way to avoid the shards, and Phantom landed evenly on the ground between them. The fire alarm blared in the background, nearly drowning out the shouts of the vice principal and guidance councillor. And as Phantom turned back towards the school, either missing or not caring about Sam and Tucker, a huge, bright green fly shot out from the school, curved around, and dove back in.

Spectra reached the window just as Phantom jumped onto the wall and easily climbed up. The fire alarm continued to blare, and students were rushing out of a nearby door.

Sam watched Phantom pull himself onto the roof. _Where's Danny?_ She dodged the broken glass to reach Tucker's side the second Spectra backed away from the window, and pulled him towards the crowd. "Danny?"

"Danny?!" Tucker shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. He didn't wait for Sam this time, and rushed into the crowd. Sam followed a few steps behind, weaving past Mia, Paulina, and- oh _God-_ Danny's sister. Jazz called after her, but Sam kept running, and calling out Danny's name.

She found Tucker, right in front of Valerie, who was looking around wildly herself. He looked back at her, and Sam saw a trace of a bright green stain on Valerie's shirt.

They didn't say anything to each other, and Valerie said nothing to them. Danny's sister called their names again as Sam and Tucker ducked through the crowd and back into the school.

.-.

The fly was in the gym, and Danny had followed the cold air and his gut feeling right to it. Pieces of science projects had been utterly destroyed, and the fly was perched on half a table.

Danny stepped forwards and stared the bug down. "Get out of my school."

The fly rubbed it's two front legs together and launched a huge glob of ectoplasm at Danny's chest. He crashed into the desk behind him, arms pinned to his side.

"Dying didn't teach you how to bargain, did it?" Danny deadpanned, as he struggled- and failed- to at least sit up. "Okay, fair enough." The fly buzzed over to him, loose ectoplasm dripping from its injured eye. A semi-solid clump landed on Danny's cheek. "Um, less fair. Definitely less fair!" His arms were stuck to his side. He couldn't move.

Danny's breath caught in his throat, and he stared up at the bug. His breathing turned shallow, and his heart was pounding. Every part of him that wasn't restrained was shaking. _Oh God. Oh, God..._ the fly stood above him, rubbing its hands together again. What had he been _thinking?!_ That he could yell at it and it would leave?! Why did he think that would work?

"Flicker!" Danny barely managed to choke out the word, "Flicker, please, I- oh, God, _please."_ The fly leaned in closer to him. "Help me."

A huge clump of the ceiling broke off and crashed into the fly, with Phantom riding it all the way down. He floated up, energy coating his hands- Danny felt his bindings pull against the floor, and freezing energy stir in his palms. He still couldn't move.

"You do not belong in this realm," Phantom said, glaring down at the fly as it shrugged off the chunk of roof. Danny flinched as it landed right beside his head. "Leave at once."

"Dramatic," Danny whispered, trying desperately to shift his hands away from his sides. "Nice commanding spooky voice. Did you practice that?"

Phantom frowned and looked down at him. He opened his mouth to speak, and the fly launched itself right at him. Phantom darted out of the way, spinning back around in a second to fire his ectoblast. Danny's fired too, and the ectoplasm holding him down immediately snapped.

Danny screamed, arms flailing as he ascended. Phantom darted towards him, grabbing Danny by his shirt and dragging him onto the roof's support beams.

"Stay," he said, jabbing a finger in Danny's face. "I'm going to get it away from here. I'll get you down after." He turned back to the fly.

"Wait!" Danny shouted, clinging to the support, "I can help you, just point me at him and shoot!"

Phantom rolled his eyes and dived back down towards the bug. He weaved expertly around the fly's ectoblasts, only forming his own right before he hit the fly. It was launched towards the hole in the roof, but fell back in an arc with a painful _crunch!_ Desks went flying, science projects shattered on the ground, and Danny faintly heard his name.

He frowned, looked away from the fight, and heard his name again. _Tucker?_

Phantom looked to his left for just a second and didn't manage to dodge the next shot. The ectoblast hit his chest and he tumbled, bounced, and snapped a desk in half.

Danny winced in sympathy and _more_ phantom pains before turning back to the door. He tried to ignore how the left side of his head was stinging. The fly darted past, and Danny stared at the two who'd jumped back in fear. Sam and Tucker were in the doorway, staring at the remains of the science fair. Tucker was pointing at the fly and had been loudly saying "Um," for the last ten seconds. Sam was glaring at Phantom, who wasn't moving from where he'd landed.

The fly had landed right beside him, and was staring Danny's friends down.

Danny shifted along the beam, trying to get a better look at Phantom. The fly rubbed its gross hands together as more ectoplasm dripped from its eye, and flames sprung up around it.

"No!" Danny screamed, and the flaming bug launched itself at his friends. The doorway lit up and Danny screamed-

Sam was on top on Tucker, just inside of the gym. She'd tackled him out of the way. Danny nearly lost his balance as he collapsed with relief and Tucker, lying on his back, saw him flail lamely before grabbing the beam. His hand whacked a stuck dodgeball.

"Danny, what the _fuck!_ " Tucker shouted as he pointed at him, then at the fly, then back again. Sam rolled over, looked up at him, and leaned back to avoid Tucker's frantic pointing. "What is that?!"

"Ghost bug!" Danny shouted back, "Is Phantom okay?"

Sam shot the still unmoving ghost a look. "Doesn't look like it!" She turned back to Danny, and the fly landed on another set of broken desks. "Don't move, we'll find a ladder!"

The fly turned to face her and rubbed its hands together.

"Hey!" Heart pounding in his chest, Danny yanked the stuck dodgeball out from between the supports and pulled back, "Stay away from them!" He felt the cold feeling flow through his arm as he launched the ball, and the world seemed to move in slow motion. The fly flickered, and turned to face him. A clump of ectoplasm slipped out from its eye. The ball, wisps of energy twisting from it, sailed out of Danny's hand.

Time clicked back into place and the ball wedged itself in the fly's injured eye.

Danny pulled back. "Oh, gross!"

The fly reeled back, launching its half-ready blast at the ceiling. The hole in the roof spread, shattering into pieces that missed Danny by less than an inch. A chunk hit his beam and Danny heard a sickening _crack!_

Danny clung to the beam as it groaned under his weight, squeezing his eyes shut. _If any of the supernatural jerks stalking me want to make themselves useful, now would be a great time!_

"Tucker!" Sam's voice rang out, "Go long!"

Danny opened his eyes just in time to see a sharpened piece of pipe sail through the fly.

"Holy-" instead of hitting the ground on the other side, it nearly stabbed the ugliest remote control car Danny had ever seen. But the little robot spun around and shot the pipe right back through the fly. Danny could see Tucker beside it, hidden among the rubble, a remote control in his hands.

"Danny, get somewhere safe!" Sam shouted, and ran for the pipe. She never stopped- she scooped it up off the ground, turned on her heel, and flung it right back through the fly.

 _Where?!_ Danny's attempt to shout back to her was cut off as the beam started to bend and groan. Danny sent an anxious look back at the fly before starting to shimmy across it. His heart pounded in his chest, and his blood rushed past his ears. He was terrified- he could die so easily, at any time- but Danny still let out half a laugh. Something about this just made sense.

An ectoblast hit the metal in front of him and it snapped.

Again, the world seemed to slow down. He could hear Tucker shouting. The fly was dripping, but wouldn't stop buzzing. Sam had slipped when trying to grab the pipe, and was falling too. She kept staring at him.

Danny looked down. Phantom was right below him, ectoplasm caked around the side of his head, and in a blink Flicker had perched on a broken desk next to him. Danny swore he could see blue eyes as Flicker, unaffected by the slowdown, motioned for him to come over.

Time snapped back to normal and Danny launched himself off the beam, hands clasped together as he swan dived into Phantom's still form.

There was no pain- just a flash, a jolt, and then Danny was on his back as his palms filled with a painful, burning cold.

"Hey, house fly!" He called, "The ladybug wants you to get out of her house!" He aimed both hands and twisting blue energy shot from his palms, trapping the fly for barely a second before it was falling.

The bug hit the floor and splattered.

Danny's chest was twisting. Sam was picking herself up from the ground. Tucker poked his head out from behind half a desk.

"I..." Danny swallowed, staring at the ectoplasm the coated the destroyed gym. "I don't think Ishiyama and Lancer are going to be very happy about this."

"That was _awesome!_ " Tucker shouted, and threw the remote away as he shot across the gym. He threw his arms around Danny and both boys were sent crashing to the ground. "Dude, holy shit-" he pulled back, "I am talking to Danny, right?"

Danny blinked. "Oh! Right!" He focused on being separate, and with a flash of light Phantom was slumped outside of the hug. And automatically, with his heart slowing down, a sharp ache started to sink into his bones. "Oh yeah," he held up his right hand, and stared at the tiny pieces of glass still stuck among scabs, "I punched the fire alarm."

"Are you okay?" Sam was standing a little way away, anxiously watching Phantom. "Danny, are you hurt?"

"Probably," he said, and Tucker pulled off the hug to help him back up. "Thanks."

"Come on," she took a couple steps closer, "we should get you out of here."

"I'm fine, I can walk and stuff," Danny half-muttered, not really focusing on his friends. "I'll be fine. Yeah." He took a step and his legs automatically buckled under him.

Tucker caught his right arm and Sam dove forwards to grab the other. Her fingers brushed the semisolid ectoplasm stuck to his arm and she snapped her hand back with a shout. "What is that?!"

"Ectoplasm," Danny said, only half paying attention. "I punched the fly in the face. It was really cool. You should've seen it, Tuck."

Tucker stared at him for a second. "I'm sure it was, dude. I think your sister's here, let's go find her before you die on us."

"O-okay, but-" Danny held up his ectoplasm covered hand, "if I die, can we say I _went ghost?"_

"Sure," Tucker slung Danny's arm around his shoulder, "let's go tell your sister you aren't dead."

Right beside Sam's foot, Phantom groaned.

She took several quick steps away from the ghost as he sat up, dragging Tucker- and Danny- by the sleeve with her. Danny barely registered her placing a hand on his right arm.

"See?" Danny said, and the room started to spin around him. "I told you I could fight."

Phantom rubbed his eyes and looked confused for a second. "What?" He blinked, looked over at Danny, and threw himself back against a broken desk.

Danny threw a look over his shoulder and took in the splattered ectoplasm behind him. A tiny, pulsing ovular object sat in the middle. He felt a weight in his chest. _Wow, what did I do to that dodgeball?_ "Oh yeah," he looked back towards Phantom, "we blew up the bug."

The ghost stared up at them, and Sam pulled the boys back a couple more steps before moving to Danny's left. "Ask him if he brought it here," she said.

"Right." Danny pointed his ectoplasm covered hand at Phantom, "Why'd you bring that fly here?"

"I _didn't!_ " Phantom steadied a shaking hand on half the desk behind him. "I was trying to stop it!"

"Well, I did, not you," Danny shrugged, "so-"

"You didn't have to _kill it!_ " He shouted, and shoved himself to his feet. Phantom turned to face Danny, and the temperature around them seemed to drop. "It was scared, and _confused-_ it didn't need to die, just to go home! And you _splattered_ it! It wasn't a threat!"

"It was lighting itself on _fire_ and destroyed the gym!" Danny shouted back, nearly smacking Sam as he gestured around. "Don't tell me it was just _scared,_ look at my-"

"You attacked it first!"

"You attacked it too! What, are you just mad because you lost?!"

"No!" Phantom stomped a foot, and twisting streams of frost curled out from around him, "I was trying to get it away because it didn't understand what it was doing!"

"Well you could've fooled me!" Danny shouted back, and kicked some rubble onto one of the frost lines. "You left me on a roof, you jerk! I could have died!" The room kept shifting, but Phantom stayed stationary.

"You deserved-"

Something in the back of Danny's mind pulled taunt and snapped. "Phantom, _never_ shout at me again!"

The ghost tensed up and pulled back.

"Is that clear?" Danny asked, staring him down. "I said-"

"Danny," Tucker reached out another hand to steady him.

"-Is that clear?!" Danny didn't even acknowledge him.

"Yes, sir," Phantom mumbled.

"Hey, Phantom." Sam said, "Stop speaking your weird ghost language and talk in English. We already know you can."

"Guys-" Tucker started, and again, Phantom tensed.

"Ohh- _kay,_ " he muttered, "ownlie- on _ly_ English."

"Now he sounds broken," Danny said.

Phantom glared at him, but stayed silent. He kept his fists clenched at his sides, and didn't even bother to blink.

Danny could faintly hear a rhythmic slapping sound. "I think someone's coming," he said, the anger draining from his voice. "I don't care what you do Phantom, just stay away from me."

 _"You_ stay away," Phantom growled, and disappeared.

Tucker sucked in a breath. "Well that was fucked up! Let's go find a place for Danny to pass out."

"Also the glass," Danny held up his still slightly bloody hand, "should probably-"

"What in the name of Hamlet's father is this?!"

Three heads snapped back to the door to see Mr. Lancer standing there, looking absolutely horrified at the remains of the science fair, with a pale-faced Jazz Fenton at his side.

"Oh, hi Jazz," Danny said, and waved with his ectoplasm-covered arm. "When did you get here?"

* * *

 _Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home.  
Your house is on fire and your children are alone._

Fight scenes are hard, but Danny's witty banter will get better with time, as will his ghost fighting skills and his teamwork. We hope. Well, we know, because that's the A-plot, but we still hope. He's very good at making supernatural creatures hate him.

Anyway, don't mind me, I'll just be leaving some snacks out. Maybe while you eat these figurative creations, you can tell me your thoughts?


	11. Choose Your Fighter

It's Christmas time! And y'all know what that means? _Christmas Extravaganza Update Bonanza._ An update for this lovely story, new SOS Text, and two new agender Clockwork shorts.

I do this every year, because I'm a nerd.

This chapter took a bit because Danny decided that his scene was going to be difficult. I eventually cut it, so now this chapter has an alarming lack of the main character. Whoops. On the bright side however, we have plenty of the rest!

Onwards!

* * *

 **Chapter 11;** _ **Choose Your Fighter**_

Valerie wove through the crowd, away from the ambulance that Fenton was being wheeled into. She had no interest in watching Manson and Foley get scolded by Lancer, or to listen to Dash complain about how horrible it was that those losers had destroyed the gym. There was absolutely no part of her that cared about any of that, and she'd only stayed so long because of Prince.

She still didn't know where he was.

He hadn't left the school when Fenton pulled the alarm, but the teachers around him all had. So he must have gotten away. She'd already checked his shelter, but maybe she should try it again? He could have found his way back there.

Valerie shoved a couple older students out of the way as she broke through the crowd and took in the field around her. Someone would see her if she ran, and she didn't want to cause trouble by being followed. She needed a plan.

A hand tapped her shoulder and Valerie smacked it away before she turned around. She didn't know the guy in front of her; he looked a bit like he'd thrown a black sweater over top of his dark blue pajama pants, would probably have the exact same hairstyle as half the boys in the school if he ever bothered to pick up a comb, and a crooked nose. He was annoyingly short, and looked like a loser: exactly as bland and forgettable as the rest of them.

He held up his hands. She hated his stupid grin. "Chill, Val."

"Val?" Oh, Valerie was going to kill this loser. She snapped a hand out to grab his collar, but he was faster- too fast. He dropped and was behind Valerie again before she could look down.

"We're still on school grounds, Val, you can't fight me." He sounded like he was laughing at her. Valerie spun around again and aimed her fist at his gut. He caught it easily enough, and Valerie stared at him for a second. There was something _wrong_ with his hands.

Valerie pulled her fist back. "What do you want?"

He smiled at her. Valerie glared back. "That homeless kid you adopted is by the dumpsters." Valerie took off running, "Give him a hug for me!"

No one noticed her mad dash across the school's field. It wasn't until she turned a corner that Valerie realized she hadn't thanked the guy, let alone asked his name or how he knew she was looking for Prince.

A little voice in the back of her mind told her it wasn't important. Valerie mentally punched the voice in it's face and vowed to do the same to Pajama Pants after she'd checked on Prince.

Valerie sprinted around a corner and looked down at Prince, curled up in a ball beside someone's phone. His head snapped up, and Valerie could plainly see an ugly green clump on the side of his head; the same stuff that Fenton's arm had been covered in.

"Hey," she said softly, and knelt down across from him, "are you hurt?"

Prince sniffled and buried his face again. Despite how hard he tried to keep them quiet, Valerie heard his choked sobs.

 _I'm going to fucking murder Danny Fenton._ Valerie shuffled forwards, and Prince shuffled back. "It's okay," she said, and reached out to rest her fingertips on his arm. "Did he hurt you?"

"H-he, he-" Prince's voice was quiet, "he..."

 _That's a yes._ "It's okay. You're okay." She moved a bit closer and squeezed Prince's wrist. "Where are you hurt?"

Prince peaked up, tears streaking down his cheeks and a gross bubble of snot under his nose. Hesitantly- he probably had to translate- he reached out with his right hand. There were long, black slices across its side, and a piece of glass stuck out from one of them.

"Okay." Valerie shifted closer to him and grabbed his uninjured hand. Prince flinched, but then squeezed it.

"Friend," he said, and took a shaking breath in.

"Friend," Valerie repeated. "Let's get you somewhere safer." She pulled him up, and kept holding his hand.

"Friend." Prince muttered, "Friend." He squeezed her hand and clung to her sleeve. "Sorry. Sorry friend."

"It's fine," Valerie said, as soothingly as she could. "Let's go, okay?"

Prince nodded and clung to her arm. Valerie let it slide.

"Sorry," he said again.

Valerie gave him an awkward pat and started back around the school. Prince clung tighter, and Valerie didn't have the heart to push him off. She caught sight of Pajama Pants standing on the edge of the crowd, and contemplated whether to flip him off or nod. She chose to give him a quick nod; she didn't want Prince learning another swear.

Pajama Pants looked absolutely thrilled, and he waved back. And then he pointed over his shoulder. Before Valerie could even attempt to ask what that meant, he leaned to the left as Valerie's dad shot past him. Valerie froze, Prince still clinging to her arm, as her father skid to a stop and pulled Valerie off her feet.

"It's all over the news," he said quickly, "they said part of the school collapsed. You weren't answering your phone, and there was an ambulance leaving- I'm so glad you're safe." He set her back down. Prince, who was somehow still clinging to her, stepped behind Valerie and tried to make himself smaller. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, I'm okay," Valerie said, "sorry, Daddy. I didn't hear your call."

"Calls," Damon Grey corrected, and looked down at Prince. "Who's your friend?"

Valerie swallowed. "Daddy, this is Prince." Prince waved. "He's homeless and foreign, he doesn't speak a lot of English. I've been trying to keep him safe, Daddy, but-"

"Is he hurt?"

Valerie relaxed. There was no trace of anger in her father's expression, just careful concern. "Yeah. And he's been living in a shelter by the football shed for a week. He- Daddy, when I found him, he literally had nothing but the clothes on his back."

Damon nodded, and knelt down. Prince clung tighter. "Hi there," he said, "let's get you patched up, okay?"

Prince looked confused. "Val _er_ ie," he whispered, and pointed to her dad.

"Friend," Valerie replied.

"Oh," Prince still looked a bit hesitant, but offered a small wave. "Hi."

.-.

Jazz had been in the ambulance with her little brother. Now, she stood in the waiting room, and stared at the door as her parents busted in.

"Outside," she snapped, _"now."_

Maddie and Jack took a step back as she stormed past them.

"Jasmine, we don't have time for this," Maddie said, "your brother-"

"Where were you?!" Jazz snapped, and stared her mother in the eye. "I told you Danny had a project today! I _told you_ he would be presenting it after school and you needed to come support him!" She barely paused to breathe, "Half of that gym is now rubble or covered in ectoplasm! Danny's going to be known as the kid who _destroyed_ the school, because you either gave him a dangerous chemical or put it in a place where he could get himself covered in it! What is wrong with you?!" Neither of them had any reply, so Jazz continued. "Have you even noticed how weird he's been acting? He keeps talking to himself and getting weird injuries that he makes up dumb excuses for, while _you're_ always in the basement or that stupid _thing_ you put on our roof or-"

"Jasmine, enough!" Maddie snapped, and Jazz- still seething- fell silent. "I understand that you're upset, but we needed to go over our old notes and there was an ectoenergy spike characteristic of a ghost in this realm-"

"You're blaming this on a _ghost?"_ Jazz almost couldn't believe it. She really, really didn't want to.

She stopped arguing and walked back into the hospital. Her parents called after her, and Jazz ignored them entirely.

A _ghost._

Her brother was acting out in a dangerous way, he could have _died,_ and her parents wanted to blame their absence on a _ghost._

.-.

Sam and Tucker sat in the office, with Ms. Tetslaff in front of the broken window. Penelope Spectra- Sam would be calling her Spectra, _not_ Penny, thank you very much- sat across from them with her hands folded gently in her lap. She smiled, and Sam slouched in her chair. She elbowed Tucker until he did the same. If these _adults_ didn't want to believe her when she told them what had happened, then she wasn't about to make it easy for them to force their delusions about what happened onto her.

The door opened, and Lancer brought Tucker's parents in. They didn't look nearly as furious as Sam imagined her's would, just tired and sad.

"Hi, Mom," Tucker said, "hi, Dad. I know you're mad-"

"We're not mad," Maurice Foley said, "just... disappointed."

Sam barely contained a laugh. That _had_ to be the most stereotypical parental thing she'd ever heard. Spectra gave her a curious look, and Sam strongly considered just punching her.

Distantly, she heard an overdramatic, _"Our_ Sammikins?" and the urge to disappear became significantly more pressing.

The door was thrown back open, apparently shocking Tucker's Dad enough that he clung to his wife as Pamela Manson stormed in. "Samantha Anne Manson!"

Sam continued to sit in the most undignified position she could think of as Tucker shuffled his chair away from her. "Mother."

Spectra offered her chair, but Pamela stayed standing. _"What_ did you do to the school gymnasium?"

"Nothing," Sam said, "I know you don't believe me, but I didn't do anything."

"And that green- whatever it is?"

There was no way Sam was going to try and explain ectoplasm. "Hell if I know."

" _Language!"_

Spectra placed her hand on Pamela's shoulder and gently guided her to the chair. With much less force, her father and Principal Ishiyama entered. "What your Mother means, Samantha," the urge to punch the school counselor was back with a vengeance, "is these are very serious charges you and your friends have been presented with. If you explain what happened, I'm sure we can work something out."

Sam scoffed.

"Danny already tried that," Tucker pointed out.

"With the state Mr. Fenton was in, his claim of a _ghost_ attacking the school is far from reliable." Lancer replied. "The three of you may be facing charges."

Tucker looked like he was about to jump to his feet. "We didn't even do anything!"

"If I may," Spectra spoke up, her hand still on Pamela's shoulder. "I think that may be a bit much. These children obviously didn't intend to cause any harm. I believe they should fail the project, pay for a fraction of the repairs, and then their parents can handle the punishment from there. Does that seem reasonable to you?"

Pamela nodded and sighed, "I suppose."

"I would rather my son didn't face any charges," Angela Foley spoke softly, "that sounds perfectly reasonable."

Sam caught Tucker's annoyed look. She shook her head; if these adults wanted to be difficult, that was their problem. If Phantom caused another attack and someone got hurt because they were too self-absorbed to listen to a teenager, then that was their problem.

The meeting winded down, and with a tense pair of hands on her shoulders Sam was led back to where their driver had parked the car. She stayed silent: she wasn't going to try and take them on like this. It wasn't a battle she would win.

They were halfway home before Pamela said, "I don't want you near those boys anymore, Samantha."

.-.

"Tucker," his mom looked so tired, "what really happened?"

Tucker was tired too. He'd fought a ghost, watched his best friend be driven off in an ambulance, and been told for half an hour that he'd been making everything that happened that evening up for attention.

"Tucker, please," his mom continued, and looked over to her husband for a brief moment. He had his hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road. "We're not going to judge you."

Tucker was close to his parents. The last thing he wanted to do was something that could ruin that, and he didn't want to lie to them. "Danny's parents were right. Ghosts are real, and this giant ghost fly attacked the school."

His mother frowned. His father kept his eyes on the road. "I believe you," Maurice said.

Angela sat up straight and faced the front.

Tucker stared. "You believe me?"

"I grew up in this town, Tucker," he said, "I went to school with Olivia Marshall. I've heard every ghost story there is, what's one more?"

Faintly, Tucker could remember the story about the girl who threw herself from the old bridge between Amity and Elmerton in the eighties, and how she apparently returned on rainy nights to call for her lost lover. He'd never really been a fan of it. Danny's parents had assured him her ghost wasn't actually haunting that bridge anyway. "The fly was actually there, though. Danny punched it hard enough to explode it."

"I believe you," his dad said, and Tucker slouched in his seat. He caught his mother's exhausted sigh in the mirror.

It wasn't worth it. They wouldn't believe him anyway.

.-.

 _How_ _ **dare**_ _they?_

Sam had thrown everything in her room that she could, and smashed half the stuff on her way up. How _dare_ her mother try and tell her who she could and could not associate with?! There was no way in _Hell_ that she was going to sit down and let that woman mode her into her image of impossible perfection- she was going to be her own independent and free person if it killed her!

Her computer _dinged,_ and Sam grabbed the first thing she could from her dresser. If it was from any member of her family and had _anything_ to do with calming down, she'd-

It was from Rebecca. ' _Hey Sam, I still have your stuff. And Mia wants to know if you actually trashed the gym._ '

Sam returned her desk chair to its upright position and rolled it back to her desk. ' _Part of it, yeah._ ' She replied.

There was a short pause before Rebecca replied, ' _Mia also wants to know if you're still in for forcing a vegan menu day._ '

Sam stared at the message, then looked over at a family photo that hadn't been knocked from the wall. A well-aimed hair tie fixed that, and the photo tumbled- glass shattering as it hit the side of her dresser.

' _Hell yeah,_ ' she replied, ' _my mom will hate it._ '

.-.

Damon had pulled the glass out of Prince's arm with a set of tweezers Valerie had in her purse. They'd cleaned him off with a make-up wipe, and with the green _whatever_ off of him he'd looked much better. Paler and still gaunt, but that seemed to be his normal unhealthy look.

Valerie's dad had informed her by text that after they gave him something to eat, they would be taking the poor boy to the hospital. Valerie didn't argue; if she got angry, Prince would start getting upset, and he'd been through enough already. Still, something seemed _wrong_ about taking Prince away like this.

She sat in the backseat of her dad's car, Prince to her right. He only had the lap part of his seatbelt on, and had discovered the button that rolled down the window. He was laughing, and sticking his head out into the night air. "Val _er_ ie!" He pointed at his mouth, "Bug!"

 _Ew._ "Did you... eat one?"

Prince grinned, and Valerie tried to keep the judgement off her face as her dad rolled up the window.

"Why don't we get you some actual food?" Damon suggested, "Do you like burgers? Or chicken?"

"Shiken?" Prince scrunched up his face, "Burr-gurs? Huh?"

Valerie brought up a picture of a burger on her phone as her dad sighed. "Do we know what his native language is?"

"No," Valerie handed Prince her phone, "it doesn't sound like any I've heard."

Damon nodded. "Prince," He asked, "What... words... do you know?"

Prince blinked. "Words? Words..." He turned back to the window, "Green eggs and ham. Yes. Val _er_ ie. Burn. Bug. Food. Hungry. Sorry. Hi. Friend talk." He wrinkled his nose again, "Dan _ny._ "

Valerie clenched her fists and let out a low growl. She missed the rest of the words, and her Dad's next attempt to ask what he wanted, but it didn't matter. Next time she saw Danny Fenton she was going to pound that loser into the ground.

"Chicken." Prince was muttering when she bothered to stop plotting her revenge against Fenton., "Chicken, birds. Birds. V-" Prince suddenly crumpled in on himself, clutching at the center of his chest.

"Dad!" Valerie's panicked shout was unnecessary; her dad was already pulling over.

"S-sorry," Prince choked out, "Sorry no bad, no bad-" he was crying again, and flinched when Valerie reached over. He kept whispering an apology.

"Is he alright?" Damon asked, and Valerie tried to place her hand on Prince's shoulder again. It felt... softer than it had a moment ago, but that didn't make any sense. Maybe it was dislocated? _He was fine a second ago!_

"There's something wrong with his shoulder!" Valerie called back, not taking her eyes off Prince. The streetlight above them cast a strange glow over Prince's face, making him look almost see-through for a moment. Prince was curling tighter around himself, shaking as he clutched at his chest.

Damon undid his seatbelt and shoved the door open. Valerie looked over for barely a second.

"You're going to be fine," the soft pressure of his shoulder against her hand disappeared. "We're going to get you to a hospital, or-" the seat was empty when she turned back. The seatbelt still buckled in, and the door still closed.

Damon finally reached the other side, and pulled Prince's door open. He wasn't outside, either. Valerie and her dad stared at each other, neither knowing what to say.

"Prince?" Valerie called, undoing her seatbelt and slipping out the open door. She dropped to the ground- he wasn't under the car. "Prince?!"

"I didn't see the door open," her dad said, and attempted to look under the seat. "Where did he go?"

Valerie pulled back and looked over the street, searching for any sign of him. The air was thinner here compared to the school, and didn't smell so much like broken air fresheners- it was easier to think.

It was easier to put together that Prince shouldn't have been able to go _anywhere_ without one of them seeing him.

.-.

As far as Amity Park was concerned, Casper High was cursed.

In 1955, Sidney Poindexter had died trapped in a locker. Six months later, after a horrible storm, one wing of the school had fallen in. Since then, at least one student had killed themself every year. In 1989, Olivia Marshall, the valedictorian, had thrown herself from a bridge. Three months later, the same half had flooded. Now, the gym had collapsed, and a freshman had been whisked away to hospital. Everyone who had the choice would be staying as far away they could for the next while. So, there was no one to see the young adult in a brown coat break the wood over a broken window in and slip on through.

Besides, even if they did, it was Lewis who'd take the fall.

The being who'd taken on the name of Flicker stood inside Mr. Lionel Lancer's office, one foot still on the board he'd kicked in and arms crossed. "Well, here we g- Powers Above this is _still_ unnerving." Speaking with someone else's voice was just weird. Maybe weird enough to stop his habit of talking to himself. "Hah, no- okay this is still creepy." He beat a fist against his chest and coughed, which did nothing to help.

No security cameras were on- and again, if they were, Lewis' excuse of possession was still several weeks short of holding weight- so Flicker took his time. He strolled through Casper High, hands in his pockets, and looked through every empty room. It would be far too easy to slip back and just remember how it used to be.

Unfortunately, he had a mission to complete.

"PE," he muttered, "gym class, perfect example of gym ass...inine. Yes. No swears. No disappointing my mom, no sirree. I don't disappoint anyone by existing, I've got my personality for that." He slipped through a hallway into absolute darkness. "Wow, we got dark. Freakin... ghost senses, they'd be useful. Should've made a deal with a ghost." He pulled a face, and one hand along the wall, made his way along the hall. "Jeez, I sound like a crossroad demon."

Lewis' phone rang, and Flicker froze. "Oh, no- no, no-" he pulled it out of a pocket and fumbled with the flip phone, nearly dropping it on the floor. "Okay. Okay. They don't know this is happening, just... be Lewis. You got this. I got this." _I don't got this._ He answered the phone anyway.

"Where are you?" The voice on the other end didn't sound like they were about to murder him with a tire iron, but Flicker had dealt with Lewis' family enough to know that was always a possibility. A terrifying, terrifying possibility.

"I saw a ghost octopus," Flicker said. Were ectopuses happening yet? _Screw it, they are now._ "I'm between two houses, just let me find a street sign." What was a street with lots of ectoenergy but far away from Casper High? Elm street? _I'm at number 13 on Elm street. No, I'm not making this up, why would you think that?_

The voice on the other end- Kathrine? Maybe? It had been ages since he'd heard her voice- was silent. Flicker mentally started listing off every swear he knew. "Who am I speaking to?"

 _Well, I tried._ Flicker sighed, rolled his shoulders back, and put on the spookiest voice he could muster. "You already know, Kathrine Louise Archer." Nothing freaked people out more than ominous full names.

She growled on the other end. Terrifying, but she was human, and Flicker was not. It meant nothing. "I want to talk to my brother."

"He's not related to you," Flicker replied, and continued struggling down the hall. _I've got this._ "And we made a deal. He's nineteen. Not a minor, so his contracts are legally binding." Man, who knew that dumb graphic novel law book Lewis hadn't gotten him yet would be so useful?

"Whatever you are, you are above our legal system."

"Really? And here I was thinking I would face charges for my multiple murders." Ah, joking. That made it less traumatic. That made everything less traumatic.

"I want to talk to Lewis."

"Annnd your call has been forwarded to an automatic spectral messaging system," the voicemail bit had never actually worked for him, but hey, there was a first time for everything. "Leave a message at the tone-"

And then she said his name. She _said_ his _name._ "Let me talk to Lewis."

Flicker spun on his heel, chucked the phone down the hallway, and ran to the gym. He was running out of time. He had to be fast, but careful- faster and carefuler than he'd ever been. He couldn't fix this- she had no supernatural abilities, she was just _smart._ He couldn't touch her. She shouldn't have learned his name. _Lewis_ didn't even know his name! Freakin' _Vlad_ didn't even know his name! He had to finish this- go back, erase, rewrite, _something!_ She couldn't know, not this early!

He spun the corner and was well aware of a presence pushing on the back of his mind. He'd wasted too much time. He had half an hour left, if he was lucky. He had to be fast.

Flicker threw his stolen form at a gym door and felt him right arm _crack_ at the impact. Pain rushed through it, but he gritted his teeth and stepped forwards. He needed that core.

The remains of the ghost fly hadn't been cleaned up, and nobody had bothered to even put up any caution tape. The sun was rising in the sky above, dim light seeping in from the destroyed roof. Flicker stepped forward, scrunching up his face at the burnt-lime scent of ectoplasm. He remembered where it was, he just needed to find it.

His boot nudged the partially deflated remains of a dodgeball, and Flicker frowned. He pulled a sleeve over his left hand and awkwardly lifted it up between two fingers. Using his definitely-broken arm, he flipped it inside out and gave it a good shake. Nothing. Flicker frowned, and dropped it back on the ground. "I _so_ don't have time for this." Maybe he was remembering it wrong. Maybe it was caught on the spear?

Twenty minutes. He swept the ground for twenty minutes, and found nothing. If he left now, there wouldn't be any darkness to cover him.

"This can't be happening." He ran a hand through his hair and rested it on the back of his neck. "I need that freakin'- where is it?!" He kicked a fallen bit of plaster, watching as it shattered right beside a still-open side door. There was a faint hint of footprints outside- _that's new._

Flicker vaulted over a pile of rubble and darted out the side door. Distantly, he could see the football shed, and a familiar white haired figure digging a hole beside it. Prince looked up, and Flicker knew he'd been spotted.

"Hi." His voice was hoarse. He wondered if Prince even heard it. Advanced hearing only went so far.

Prince hesitantly waved and pulled into a tight ball. Of course he'd heard it.

Flicker should turn around and walk away. He knew that. He was going to break everything unless he could step back- he was already walking forwards.

"Hi." There was a lump in the back of his throat and a churning in his gut. Still, Flicker found himself standing too close to terrified Prince. "Were- were you in the school last night?"

Prince nodded. He glanced at the mound of dirt beside him and started to lean towards it.

Flicker tried to keep stoic. _Well, that explains where the core is._ "That's dangerous." _Stay strong._ "You could have been hurt."

Prince shrugged. "I- I fine." He was mumbling, and his form was faint. He must have pulled the leash, or gone into somewhere with not enough ectoplasm, or- _Prince, I'm so sorry._ "No hurt."

 _He's under orders. Oh, Powers Above, he's under the English order._ Flicker knelt down and offered a tiny smile. Prince shuffled away from him. _I'm such an idiot. Stupid! Why did I let this happen?!_ "That's good. Um..." he needed that core. All of this- Kathrine knowing his _name_ \- would be for nothing if he couldn't get it. "...Come here often?" He could clearly see the lean-to behind the shed. Of course he came here often, he freakin' lived here!

Prince was still watching him warily. Flicker sat cross-legged instead and felt Lewis' presence press against his mind again. _Ten minutes._

He sat there for another five, just beside Prince, and in utter silence. He pretended not to notice that Prince kept pulling away from him.

"It'll get better, you know," he had to say something. "You'll be just fine."

Prince raised an eyebrow and didn't look remotely convinced. Flicker hadn't expected him to.

"I know you don't believe me," _or know me,_ "but I promise, there's people out there who care about you. And they're doing everything they can to keep you safe."

Prince gave him a rather blank look. _He barely understood a word I said._

Flicker sighed, and held out a hand. "Here," he could feel Lewis pressing against his mind once again. "Take my hand, I'll prove it."

With no small amount of hesitation, Prince barely placed his fingertips on Flicker's stolen hand. He took a deep breath, focused on the fog of his stupid, stupid home, and pulled Prince in.

He saw scenes. Fragments, moments, memories- he knew them all already. He saw Prince and his sister, throwing grapes at each other. Prince curled up with his dad, clinging as tight as he could to the huge man's arm. Prince and his mom, trying to paint a canvas but covering themselves instead. Prince and his sister, standing next to the family's maid-turned-babysitter, as she made ectoplasmic butterflies land on their heads. There was the aunt and uncle, throwing the kids on their shoulders and racing down the hall. There were friends, allies, all cooing over the two delightful children holding onto their parents' hand. He saw them happy.

And then he saw himself.

Flicker focused on his own memories of learning English and shot Prince right back out. The ghost scrambled away from him, and Flicker put his hands behind his head. "See?"

"What did- what did you _do-_ " Prince stumbled over the unfamiliar words, and then he froze. He rolled his tongue, frowned, and kept his gaze on Flicker. "English."

"It's not much," Flicker replied, "but it's neat, right?"

Prince stared at him. "You taught me _English_ by touching my hand."

"I could teach you Esperanto too, if you'd like." _Yes, you idiot, teach him all the languages. That'll make up for what you've done._

"I... think I'm good?" Prince wrinkled his nose, "I don't like this language."

He could feel Lewis pressing against his mind. He had less than five minutes left. "Well, use your new skills for good and all that." Flicker stood and brushed himself off. "Be nice to your friends and don't murder your enemies."

"I don't want to hurt anyone," Prince replied softly.

Of course he didn't. Flicker swallowed the lump in his throat and hoped he kept the rasp from his voice. "Even better."

Prince had narrowed his eyes, and slowly rose to his feet. "Who are you? You're not human."

"Hey! I'm doing my best here," Flicker replied, "and I'm a friend."

"What's your name, then?" Prince crossed his arms, "You know mine, what's yours?"

Lewis really wanted his body back. Flicker glanced down at the buried core, then back at Prince, and made his choice.

It was the same choice he'd always make.

"I can't tell you that yet," he said, and Prince frowned. "You'll figure it out soon, I promise. But next time we meet, don't say anything unless I do, okay?"

Prince tipped his head to the side. "Why?"

"If I'm right, we won't be alone." Not a lie. He couldn't lie to Prince. Wouldn't. Not after everything. "I'm trying to help you, so just for a bit, could you play along?"

The ghost continued to stare at him. "...Sure."

"Thanks, buddy." He pointed a finger gun at Prince, "It gets better."

Prince, uncomfortably, pointed one back. "Sure."

Flicker turned around and walked back into the school. He closed the side door behind him, and slumped among the rubble. He didn't even want his next two minutes. Lewis could have his stupid humanity back.

He was thrown back into the fog, and stabilized a scene around where he'd left Lewis. The human was standing up, with tears streaming down his face.

" _Whoops,"_ It was so easy to slip back into the role, _"leftovers, my bad. I had a really good burger."_

"Where am I?" Lewis asked.

" _The school."_ He waved a hand around the darkened destroyed gym. _"Your phone's back that-a-way, I used you to eat a lot of junk food, gamble, catch up on that old Ghostbusters cartoon... and that about covers it. Peace."_ He held up two fingers and dropped the scene.

There was no emotion in the fog, and no pain. Unless you were like Flicker; then, unfortunately, you felt everything.

Hand in his pockets, Flicker blew a loose strand of hair from his face. "Just for a bit longer," it didn't matter if his voice broke. He was alone, no one could judge him. "I'll be out soon. Just a little bit longer."

The ever helpful voice in his mind reminded him that he'd been stuck saying 'just a little bit longer' for longer than he'd even been alive.

* * *

See? I told you Flicker was a good person! A very, definitely good person who is definitely collecting ghost cores for a noble purpose. There's no evil purpose he could need those for!

I'll let that joke die eventually. And then I'll bring it back as a ghost!

Alrighty, that's enough from me. So, thoughts?


End file.
